/.-THE  SAXDEMXIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


By    WILLISTON     WALKER, 

PROFESSOR,  YALE  UNIVERSITY. 


131 


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THE  SANDEMANIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


Bv  Williston  Walker. 


On  December  4,  1899,  a  brief  paragraph  in  the  daily  press 
recorded  the  death,  at  Danbury,  Conn.,  at  the  ripe  age  of  84, 
of  Miss  Lucy  Ely,  a  descendant  of  Elder  William  Brewster,  of 
Pilgrim  fame,  the  daughter  of  a  prominent  citizen  of  Danbury, 
and  his  successor  in  the  leadership  of  the  Sandemanian  Church 
of  that  place,  which  was  reduced  by  her  decease  to  a  member- 
ship of  three.  So  completely  has  the  Sandemanian  movement 
run  its  course  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  that,  though  a  few 
scattered  disciples  still  survive, a  they  were  not  deemed  impor- 
tant enough  for  mention  by  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll  in  his  enumera- 
tion of  the  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States;  and,  though 
relatively  much  more  numerous  in  Scotland  and  England,  they 
were  estimated  in  1879  as  numbering  less  than  2,000  adherents 
in  the  British  islands,6  and  are  believed  to  have  much  dimin- 
ished since  that  time.     Yet  in  the  days  when  the  Stamp  Act 

oThe  industry  of  the  late  Rev.  Edward  G.  Porter,  whose  all-too-fragmentary  notes  have 
been  kindly  loaned  me  by  his  sister,  succeeded  in  discovering  several  Sandemanian 
believers  in  as  widely  scattered  regions  as  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Illinois. 
and  Iowa,  but  i  think  not  more  than  ten  or  a  dozen  in  all.  Recent  correspondence  leads 
the  writer  to  believe  that  these  numbers  fairly  represent  the  present  state  of  the  move- 
ment in  the  United  States. 

bEncycl.  Brit..  9th  ed..  X:  637.  In  1851  they  numbered  6  churches  in  Scotland  and  6 
in  England.  (See  International  Cyclopaedia,  VI:  731.)  A  letter  from  Mr.  W.  Baxter,  of 
Dundee,  under  date  of  January  24. 1902,  states:  "  There  are  only  now  6  churches iu  Britain 
connected  with  that  order— 1  in  Dundee  (the  parent,  one  might  say),  1  in  Glasgow,  2  in 
London,  1  in  Edinburgh.  1  in  Perth.  It  may  be  explained,  however,  that  all  the  6  are 
not  in  communion  witli  each  other,  as  1  church  in  London  and  the  Edinburgh  and  Perth 
and  a  small  number  (under  12)  in  this  city  (Dundee)  are  separate  from  the  other  3 
churches,  owing  to  differences  iu  their  tenets  and  practices.  The  Dundee.  Glasgow,  and 
the  other  London  churches,  and  a  few  'about  a  dozen)  in  Newcastle,  continue  in  the 
same  doctrine,  tenets,  and  practices,  as  Mr.  Glasdid.  and  also  Mr.  Sandeman.  his  son-in- 
law."  The  eminent  scientist,  Michael  Faraday,  was  an  •elder"  of  one  of  the  London 
churches,  and  a  sermon  preached  by  him  on  November  1,  1863,  from  John  xi:  25.  was 
printed  at  Danbury  in  1872,  in  a  tract  entitled  "A  Letter  by  William  B.  Ely,"  etc., 
pp.  13-15. 

133 


134  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

was  the  chief  topic  of  American  political  debate,  the  Sande- 
manian  movement  aroused  heated  controversy  in  old  England 
and  in  New  England  alike,  gave  birth  to  a  considerable  litera- 
ture, and  enlisted  the  sympathies  not  of  the  ignorant  only, 
but  of  a  number  of  men  and  women  of  education  and  position, 
who  viewed  it  as  a  new  and  helpful  presentation  of  the  gospel 
message  and  a  revival  of  the  life  of  the  primitive  churches. 

The  Sandemanian  communion,  as  it  is  called  from  its  chief 
apostle  in  England  and  America,  or  Glasite  body,  as  it  is 
designated  in  Scotland  from  the  name  of  its  real  founder,  had 
its  origin  in  a  self-denying  attempt  of  an  earnest  minister  of 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland  to  apply  what  he  believed  to  be  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Word  of  God  to  the  religious  conditions  of  the 
third  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Rev.  John  Glasa 
was  born  on  September  21,  1695,  the  son  of  the  pastor  of  the 
parish  of  Auchtermuchty,  in  Fifeshire,  and  after  graduating 
at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  entered  his  father's  profes- 
sion, being  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld 
on  May  20,  1718,  and  ordained  to  a  ministerial  charge  at 
Tealing,  in  Forfarshire,  a  little  less  than  a  }rear  later — May  6, 
1719.  The  time  in  which  his  early  pastorate  ran  its  course 
was  one  of  comparative  externalism  and  spiritual  deadness  in 
religion.  Scottish  Presbyterianism  had  escaped  from  its  mar- 
tyrdom under  Charles  II  and  James  II  by  the  great  revolu- 
tion which  placed  William  and  Mary  on  the  throne.  It  was 
in  peaceful  possession  of  the  land.  But  the  national  suffer- 
ings of  a  generation  before  Glas  began  his  work  had  awakened 
a  burning  devotion  to  the  national  covenants  as  badges  at 
once  of  Scottish  patriotism  and  Scottish  religion,  and,  though 
the  Stuart  menace  was  now  a  matter  of  history,  the  renewal 
of  the  "solemn  league  and  covenant"  was  a  frequent  prac- 
tice at  communion  seasons  and  on  other  ecclesiastical  occasions 
as  a  means  of  strengthening  the  sense  of  Scottish  corporate 
religious  unity  and  of  quickening  religious  zeal  among  the 
young.  But  as  Glas  studied  his  Bible  and  explained  the 
nature  of  Christ's  Kingdom  when  he  expounded  the  cate- 
chism to  his  flock,  he  came  to  feel  that  the  popular  use  of  the 

o  A  sketch  of  Glas  and  his  work  may  be  found  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography, 
xxi,  417-419,  from  the  pen  of  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon.  A  bibliography  of  his  published 
writings,  numbering  41  titles,  is  given  in  "  Letters  in  Correspondence  by  Robert  Sandeman, 
John  Glas,  and  Their  Contemporaries,"  etc.,  Dundee,  1851,  pp.  23,  24.  His  collected  works 
were  issued  at  Edinburgh  in  four  volumes  in  1761-62,  and  reprinted  at  Dundee  in  five 
volumes  in  1782-83. 


THK    sand  KM  AM  \.\s    OF    NEW    ENGLAND.  135 

covenants  was  without  scriptural  warrant  and  that  a  state 
church  or  governmental  interference  with  ecclesiastical  affairs 

ha<l  no  right  to  be.  These  rather  unpalatable  view-  he 
preached  with  some  success  to  his  rural  congregation  at 
Tealing,  and  lie  speedily  coupled  their  inculcation  with  the 
assertion  that  certain  practices  of  the  primitive  disciples  were 
wrongfully  Qeelected  l>\  the  church  of  his  dav.  His  whole 
aim  seems  to  have  hem  a  sincere,  earnest,  and  devout  attempt 
to  bring  his  people  into  greater  conformity  to  the  precepts  of 
the  Bible  as  those  precepts  seemed  to  his  essentially  literal- 
istic  mind  to  demand.  In  furtherance  of  a  warmer  and  more 
scriptural  spiritual  life,  he  established  <>n  duly  13,  1725,  a 
society  of  nearly  loo  members,  mostly  from  his  parish  at 
Tealing.  hut  with  some  accessions  from  neighboring  towns 
and  villages.  These  earnestly  religious  men  and  women 
agreed  to  help  one  another  in  Christian  living  and  to  observe 
the  Lord's  Supper  once  a  month.  Two  years  later — in  1727— 
(Has  set  forth  his  new  principles  in  a  solid  little  treatise, 
entitled  Hie  Testimony  of  the  King  of  Martyrs  Concerning 
His  Kingdom."  The  prime  purpose  of  the  volume  was  to 
declare  the  wrongfulness,  in  the  author's  estimate,  of  state 
establishments  and  governmental  control,6  but  he  intimated 
(dearly  the  conception  of  faith  which  he  and  Sandeman  were 
to  make  the  chief  doctrinal  peculiarity  of  their  disciples-/ 
and  though  he  did  not  here  set  forth  in  detail  the  practices  of 
the  primitive  church  which  he  held  to  be  binding  on  Christian 
observance,  he  made  clear  his  principle  of  literal  obedience 
to  what  seemed  the  commands  or  usages  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles. d 

These  stops  brought  down  upon  Glas  the  heavy  hand  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline. e  On  April  18.  172S.  the  Synod  of 
Angus  and  Mearns  suspended  him  from  the  ministry;  and  a 
month  later  the  General  Assembly  confirmed  the  sentence. 
( rlas  by  thi^  time  had  renounced  all  belief  in  the  rightfulness 

«The  earliest  edition  to  which  I  have  access  is  that  published  at  Edinburgh  in  1777. 
which  is  made  more  valuable  by  an  interesting  preface  from  the  pen  of  Glas's  ministerial 
disciple,  Rev.  Robert  Ferrier,  once  of  Largo.  In  this  preface  Ferrier  gives  a  compact 
summary  of  Glas's  teachings. 

b  Testimony,  ed.  1777,  158-178. 

c Ibid.,  182-184. 

d Ibid.,  251-255. 

e  These  facts  are  mostly  from  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon's  article,  already  cited.  Glas 
published  "A  Narrative  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Controversy  "  in  1728.  which  I  have 
not  seen. 


136  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

of  a  national  church,  and  he  therefore  refused  obedience  to 
these  mandates,  with  the  natural  result  that  the  synod,  on 
( October  15.  L728,  declared  him  deposed;  and  this  drastic  action 
was  approved,  in  spite  of  some  protest  on  the  part  of  those 
who  knew  his  pastoral  zeal  and  high  Christian  character,  by 
the  commission  of  the  General  Assembly  on  May  L2,  1T^<». 
Yet  the  Assembly  itself  seems  ultimately  to  have  come  to  re- 
gard its  action  as  too  severe,  for  in  173i>  it  voluntarily  passed 
a  curious  vote  declaring  Glas's  restoration  to  "the  status  of  a 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  not  to  that  of  a  minister  of  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,"  thus  leaving  him  incapable  of  holding  a 
parish,  while  recognizing  his  Christian  worth. 

In  the  year  in  which  his  sentence  of  deposition  was  thus 
confirmed  (1730)  Glas  removed  from  Tealing  to  the  neighbor- 
ing and  more  important  town  of  Dundee  and  was  followed 
thither  by  many  of  his  former  Tealing  parishioners/'  With 
them  he  continued  the  society  begun  at  Tealing,  which  grad- 
ually developed  at  Dundee  into  the  first  church  of  the  Glasite 
order.  Other  congregations  followed,  at  Arbroath  in  1731, 
Edinburgh  in  1732,  Perth  in  1733,  Dunkeld  in  1735.  Montrose 
in  1736,  and  later  at  Aberdeen  in  1751,  Glasgow  in  17(32,  and 
in  some  other  towns  of  Scotland.*  In  all  these  churches  the 
peculiar  constitution,  discipline,  and  worship  were  established 
which  we  shall  have  occasion,  speedily,  to  consider  in  some 
detail.  At  Perth,  whither  Glas  removed  his  residence  in  1733, 
the  first  meeting  house  for  the  use  of  one  of  his  congregations 
was  erected/  and  at  Perth  Glas  lived,  marked  by  decided 
scholarly  ability  and  noted  for  his  cheerfulness  and  Christian 
courage,  yet  called  upon  to  endure  much  bereavement  in  the 
deaths  of  his  wife  and  fifteen  children  till  his  own  end  came 
on  November  2.  1773. 

Here  at  Perth,  soon  after  his  settlement  in  his  new  home. 
Glas  won  his  most  noted  convert  and  the  most  eminent  apostle 
of  his  views,  Robert  Sandeman.  from  whose  labors  the  move- 
ment in  England  and  America  bears  the  Sandemanian  name. 

a  On  this,  see  a  paper  by  Rev.  Robert  Ferrierin  the  •'Supplementary  Volume,"  Appen- 
dix, III-V,  described  in  a  subsequent  note. 

*>  These  namesand  dates  1  take  from  the  unpublished  notes  written  by  Rev.  (afterwards 
President  I  Kzra  Btilesof  a  conversation  had  by  him  with  Sandeman,  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  in 
L764.  The  manuscript  is  in  the  possession  of  Yale  University.  Rev.  James  Ross,  "  Hist. 
Cong.  Independency  in  Scotland,"  Glasgow,  1900.  30,  adds  to  these,  as  founded  then  or 
later.  Paisley.  Leith.  Cupar,  and  Galashiels. 

cDict.  Nat.  Biog.,  XXI.  117. 


THK    SANDK.M  A  MANS    OF     \KW     ENGLAND.  l.')7 

Sandemana  was  born  in  L718,  the  eldest  son  of  David  Sande 
man, a  merchant  of  sufficient  standing  to  be  oneof  the  magis 
trates  of  Perth.  After  a  brief  apprenticeship  to  the  main 
Perth  industry,  thai  of  weaving,  the  young  man  went  to  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  uncertain  whether  to  become  a 
minister  or  a  physician;  but  before  his  studies  were  far 
advanced  he  1'ell  under  the  influence  of  Glas,  accepted  that 
leader's  views,  and  in  L736  became  a  member  of  the  Glasite 
congregation  at  Perth.  The  next  vear  Sandeman  married 
(ilas's  daughter  Katharine,  and  about  the  same  time  estab- 
lished himself  in  partnership  with  a  brother6  as  a  linen 
weaver  on  a  considerable  scale. 

The  year  1744  saw  Sandeman's  election  as  an  "elder"  of 
the  Perth  congregation,  and  he  now  gave  up  active  business 
in  order  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  religious  work.  His 
abilities  as  a  preacher  were  considerable,  and  his  services 
much  promoted  the  Sandemanian  cause  at  Perth.  Dundee,  and 
Edinburgh/  It  was  during  this  ministry  at  Edinburgh  that 
he  wrote  the  most  noted  exposition  of  the  cardinal  theological 
tenet  of  Sandemanianism,  its  doctrine  of  faith.  This  treatise 
was  his  "Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio,"  published  origin- 
ally in  1  Tr>7.'/  a  work  which  reached  a  fourth  British  edition  by 
1768.'  and  commanded  wide  attention  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  Its  occasion  was  the  popular  " Dialogues  between 
Theron  and  Aspasio,"^*  in  which  the  excellent  Calvinist  and 
evangelical  rector  of  Weston  Favell  and  Collingtree,  James 
Hervey,  had  defended  the  doctrine  of  the  imputed  righteous- 
ness of  Christ,  in  1755,  and  had  set  forth  the  ordinary  evan- 

«A  brief  sketch  of  Sandeman  from  the  pen  of  I).  M.  [itchelson]  is  prefixed,  with  a 
portrait,  to  a  volume  printed  at  Dundee  in  1857,  and  entitled  "Discourses  on  Passages  of 
Scripture,  with  Essays  and  Letters,  by  Robert  Sandeman."  Much  valuable  matte*-  i»  con- 
tained in  "Letters  in  Correspondence,  by  Robert  Sandeman,  John  Glas,  and  their  con- 
temporaries; Twenty-two  Discourses,  by  R.  Sandeman;  Thirty-nine  Notes  on  Scripture 
Texts,  by  John  Glas;  Ten  Discourses,  by  W.  Lyons;  Notes,  by  Gabriel  Russell."  Tins  was 
"privately  printed"  in  an  edition  of  250  copies  at  Dundee  in  1851.  It  will  he  cited  Here- 
after in  these  notes  as  "  Letters  in  Correspondence."  In  1865  there  was  published  at  Perth 
a  "Supplementary  Volume  of  Letters  and  other  Documents,  by  John  Glas,  Robert  Sande- 
man. and  their  contemporaries,"  in  continuation  of  the  Letters  in  Correspondence.  This 
will  be  cited  hereafter  as  the  ••Supplementary  Volume." 

b. William  Sandeman. 

••The  letters  printed  in  the  Supplementary  Volume  abundantly  show  this. 

d  At  Edinburgh 

*So  given  on  the  title-page.  This  edition  was  printed  at  London.  Other  British  edi- 
tions were  1759  and  1762,  and  it  was  reprinted  at  Boston  in  1765,  so  these  editions  might 
more  properly  be  reckoned  five.     A  later  edition  was  put  forth  at  Boston  in  1838. 

/At  London  in  3  vols.     Several  times  reprinted. 


138  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

gelical  conceptions  of  the  nature  and  operations  of  true  faith 
and  of  the  means  which  aid  in  its  acquisition. 

To  Sandeman's  thinking,  who  in  this  matter  simply  devel- 
oped thoughts  original  with  Glas,  the  error  of  Hervey  and 
of  those  whom  he  constantly  describes  as  the  ;*  popular 
preachers"  of  the  day  was  not  in  any  under-emphasis  of  the 
sufficiency  of  Christ's  work  or  of  the  completeness  of  its  im- 
putation to  the  believer.  Rather,  their  fault  lay  in  not  em- 
phasizing this  truth  adequately.  As  was  concisely  expressed 
on  Sandemaifs  tombstone,  he  affirmed  that  "the  bare  work 
of  Jesus  Christ,  without  a  deed  or  thought  on  the  part  of 
man,  is  sufficient  to  present  the  chief  of  sinners  spotless  be- 
fore God."rt  Hence  to  urge  men  to  do  or  feel  anything  as 
an  aid  to  faith  is  to  substitute  something  for  the  gospel. 
"  Every  doctrine.*'  says  Sandeman.  "  which  teaches  us  to  do, 
or  endeavor,  anything  toward  our  acceptance  with  God  stands 
opposed  to  the  doctine  of  the  apostles.'*6  Nor  does  it  help 
the  matter,  according  to  Sandeman.  to  ascribe  to  God  the 
impulse  toward  our  search  for  Him,  "  for  whatever  I  do,  how- 
ever assisted  or  prompted,  is  still  my  own  work,*'  and  to  de- 
pend in  any  way  on  my  own  work  is  "  to  look  for  acceptance 
with  God  by  our  own  righteousness."  '  Such  current  expres- 
sions as  "the  terms  of  the  gospel"  are  "shifts"  which 
preachers  employ  to  disguise  the  truth  that  "the  least  attempt 
to  do  in  this  matter  is     *     *     *     damnably  criminal."  d 

Holding  these  extreme  views,  Sandeman  had  little  patience 
with  the  preaching  of  his  time  or  with  ministers  now  deserv- 
edly honored  as  among  the  leaders  of  Anglo-Saxon  Christianity. 
Regarding  them  he  expressed  himself  with  great  bitterness, 
because  he  believed  them  to  be  fatally  misinterpreting  the 
gospel.  A  single  illustration  of  this  hostile  attitude  will 
suffice/ 

If  any  one  chooses  to  go  to  hell  by  a  devout  path,  rather  than  by  any 
other,  let  him  study  to  form  his  heart  on  any  one  of  these  four  famous 
treatises:  Mr.  Guthrie's  Trial  of  a  Saving  Interest  in  Christ,  Mr.  Marshall's 
( iospel  Mystery  of  Sanotification,  Mr.  Boston's  Human  Nature  in  its  Four- 
fold State,  and  Dr.  Doddridge's  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul. 
If  any  profane  person,  who  desires  to  be  converted,  shall  take  pains  to 

a  Copy  in  F.  B.  Dexter's  edition  of  "  The  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,"  New  York,  1901, 
I,  259. 
b  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio,  edition  of  1768,  I,  16. 
flbid.,  I,  18. 
rflbid.,  II,  13,  14. 
elbid.,  II,  234,235. 


THE    SANDEMANIANS    OF    NrEW    ENGLAND.  139 

enter  into  the  spirit  of  these  t ks  it  will  be  eaaj  bo  Bhow  from  the  New 

Testament  that  he  thereby  becomes  twofold  more  the  child  of  hell  than  he 
was  before. 

Sandeman  pays  his  respects  to  Wesley  and  Whitefield  in 
similar  fashion;"  nor  does  Jonathan  Edwards  fare  much  better 
at  his  hands. /; 

The  real  nature  of  faith,  which  Sandeman  thus  holds  the 
"popular  preachers"  to  have  misapprehended,  he  sets  forth 
with  great  fullness:'' 

Everyone  who  believes  the  same  truth  which  the  apostles  believed,  has 
equally  precious  faith  with  them.  He  has  unfeigned  faith,  and  shall  assur- 
edly be  saved.  If  any  man's  faith  be  found  insufficient  to  save  him,  it  is 
owing  to  this,  that  what  he  believed  for  truth  was  not  the  very  same  thing 
that  the  apostles  believed,  but  some  lie  connected  with  or  dressed  up  in 
the  form  of  truth.  So  this  faith  can  do  him  no  good;  because  however 
seriously  and  sincerely  he  believes,  yet  that  which  he  believes  is  false,  and 
therefore  it  cannot  save  him. 

Yet  this  belief  in  the  truth  is  in  no  sense,  save  in  its  results, 
different  from  our  intellectual  assent  to  any  other  fact  reported 
to  us  by  testimony : a 

The  apostles  used  the  word  " faith"  or  "belief"  in  the  same  sense  we 
do  to  this  day  in  common  discourse.  We  are  properly  said  to  believe  what 
any  man  says,  when  we  are  persuaded  that  what  he  says  is  true.  There 
is  no  difference  betwixt  our  believing  any  common  testimony  and  our 
believing  that  of  the  gospel,  but  what  arises  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
testimony.  For  thus  the  apostle  John  states  the  matter,  (1  John,  v.  9): 
"If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men,  the  witness  of  God  is  greater;"  so  must 
produce  greater  certainty  or  firmness  of  persuasion. 

This  reduction  of  saving  faith  to  a  bare  intellectual  convic- 
tion of  the  exact  truth  of  the  gospel  message — yet  a  convic- 
tion wrought  by  God  and  transforming  human  lives— was 
evidently  derived,  however  unconsciously,  from  Glas  and 
Sandeman's  desire  to  exclude  all  possible  tinge  of  human  merit 
from  salvation.  It  forms  the  staple  of  Sandeman's  discourses. 
Thus,  preaching  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  on  December  1.  1764,  his 
keen-minded  hearer  Ezra  Stiles  reports  his  sermons:* 

^Vhich  bro't  him  to  the  nature  of  his  faith,  on  wc  he  was  very  brief — & 
to  this  purpose,  that  the  Iniquities  of  us  all  being  laid  upon  Christ,  he  suf- 
fered for  them  &  finished  all  suff'g  for  them  on  the  Cross  when  he  said  it 

a  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio,  edition  of  1768,  I,  145;  II,  350. 
blbid.,  II,  349, 350,  i.  e.,  the  Appendix  to  the  second  edition, 
clbib.,  II,  38,  39. 
dlbid.,  II,  36. 

eFrom  the  account  by  President  Stiles  in  the  Stiles  manuscripts  belonging  to  Yale 
University. 


140  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

is  finished  &  gave  up  the  Ghost;  and  whosoever  saw  &  believed  tJiis  Tmtli  that 
Christ  finished  a  perfect  Righteousness  on  the  Cross,  if  this  proposition  stands 
true  in  thy  Mind  (as  he  phrases  it)  thou  shalt  be  saved;  this  and  nothing 
but  this  perception  is  true  Faith. 

But  says  he,  perhaps  some  poor  distressed  Soul  will  say,  can  you  give 
us  no  directions  for  obtaining  this  Light  of  Christ  and  this  Faith? — to  which 
he  gravely  answered,  no.  No,  says  he,  there  are  not  Directions — the 
simple  Truth  is  presented  to  you,  if  you  see  it  and  believe  it,  it  is  well — 
if  not,  you  must  perish.  But  you  will  be  ready  to  say,  is  this  all?  Is  this 
all? — yes,  this  is  all — behold  ye  Dispisers  &  wonder  &  perish,  for  behold 
I  work  a  work  in  your  day,  &c. 

Aside  from  this  tenet  of  the  nature  of  saving  faith,  neither 
Glas  nor  Sandeman  had  any  serious  quarrel  with  then  cur- 
rent evangelical  doctrinal  conceptions,  but  this  was  sufficient, 
combined  as  it  was  with  a  vigorous  assault  on  "  popular 
preachers"  and  valued  writers  of  devotional  and  theological 
treatises,  such  as  Watts,  Wesley,  Whitefield,  Doddridge,  Bos- 
ton and  Hervey,  to  draw  forth  abundant  reply.  Hervey,  in- 
deed, was  in  feeble  health  when  Sandeman  critcised  his  Theron 
and  Aspasio  and  ventured  on  no  published  rejoinder,  though 
he  seems  to  have  written  a  few  "Reflections"  for  circulation 
among  his  friends  shortly  before  his  death/'  John  Wesley 
answered  promptly  in  a  brief  and  peppery  tract  in  which  he 
affirmed  that  Sandeman's  theory  was  "stark,  staring  non- 
sense," because  it  implied  to  Wesley's  thinking,  as  its  only 
logical  conclusion,  that  "every  devil  in  hell  will  be  justified 
and  saved."6  Several  anonymous  disputants  soon  joined  the 
chorus  of  dissent/  On  the  other  hand,  a  Congregational 
minister  in  London,  Samuel  Pike,  was  induced  by  a  reading 
of  the  "Letters"  to  begin  a  correspondence  with  Sandeman  in 
1758,  that  got  into  print  in  1759,  and  led  Pike  six  years  later 
into  membership,  and  soon  after  into  an  "eldership,'1  in  the 
Sandemanian  communion/'  This  was  but  the  beginning  of  the 
battle.  The  }Tear  1760  saw  the  publication  of  a  sturdy  volume 
in  opposition  to  Sandeman  by  Rev.  William  Cudworth,  a  Non- 

aSee  Sandeman,  Letters,  ed.  1768,  II:  308,  Hervey  died  December  25,  1758. 

l>  "A  Sufficient  Answer  to  Letters  to  the  Author  of  Theron  and  Aspasio,  in  a  Letter  to  the 
Author."  1757.  See  Tyerman,  "Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,"  New  York, 
1872,  II:  293. 

c(l)  Animadversions  on  the  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio;  and  (2)  A  Plain  Account 
of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.    On  these,  see  Sandeman,  Letters,  ed.  1768,  II:  351. 

d  "An  Epistolary  Correspondence  between  S.  [amuel]  P.  [ike]  and  II.  [obert]  S.  [ande- 
man]  relating  to  the  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio,"  London,  1759.  Pike  gradually 
adopted  Sandeman's  views  and  usages;  and,  his  church  having  become  divided,  he 
resigned  its  pastorate  on  December  14, 1765,  became  a  Sandemanian  "elder"  in  1766,  and 
continued  in  that  office  till  his  death  in  January,  1773. 


THE  SANDEMAKIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     141 

conformist  of  London."  who.  not  content  with  this  onslaught, 
followed  it  with  a  pamphlet  in  the  succeeding  year. *  That 
year  was  also  marked  by  replies  t<>  Sandeman  from  the  pene 
of  Rev.  Colin  Mackie  of  Montrose,0  and  of  two  anonymous 
critics,  one  of  whom  was.  or  took  the  guise  of.  "an  old 
woman."'7  This  real  or  pretended  feminine  antagonist  charged 
Sandeman  with'— 

(>mis>inn  <>i'  the  great  work  of  regeneration,  as  previous  to  any  act  of 
faith  in  u>  for  salvation;  deficienc)  in  definition  of  justifying  faith;  <livi<l- 
Lng  the  scripture  doctrine  of  faith,  in  its  direct  and  reflex  acts;  * 
denying  the  influence  of  gospel  grace  on  the  heart  unto  gospel  holiness; 
*  *  *  false  accusation  of  all  those  that  assert  the  necessity  of  direct  acts 
of  faith  in  order  to  justification,  as  making  faith  our  justifying  righteous- 
ness, 

and  with  several  other  similar  errors.  Of  this  attack  Sande- 
man remarked  that  it  was  "  scarce  inferior  to  any  of  the  an- 
swers I  have  got  from  the  men,  young  or  old."-'  This  was 
speedily  followed  by  a  two-volume  refutation  of  Sandeman's 
views  by  David  Wilson;^  while  with  the  transfer  of  the  scene 
of  Sandeman's  labors  to  America,  trans- Atlantic  critics  of 
ability  like  Rev.  Charles Chauncy,^ the  distinguished  pastor  of 
the  First  Church  in  Boston,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Langdon,1 
of  Portsmouth.  X.  H..  laterto  be  president  of  Harvard,  sought 
elaborately  to  counteract  what  they  deemed  his  pernicious 
influence.  Besides  these  eminent  New  England  Congrega- 
tionalists.  the  able  Baptist  historian.  Rev.  Isaac  Backus,  fired 
his  shaft  at  Sandeman  in  1T67:7  and.  though  Sandeman  died 
in  1771.  so  alive  was  his  conception  of  faith  nearly  forty  years 
later  that  Backus's  famous  English  fellow-believer,  Rev.  Dr. 
Andrew   Fuller,  put  forth  a  further  refutation  in  1S1(».A 

<'"A  Defense  of  Theron  and  Aspasio,"  etc.,  London,  17t>0. 

?>"The  Polyglot,  or  Hope  of  Eternal  Life,  according  to  the  Various  Sentiments  of  the 
present  Day,"  London,  1761. 

i- "The  true  Comer;  being  the  substance  of  a  sermon  preached  in  July  and  August  last, 
upon  John  VI.  45:  To  which  is  annexed,  A  Detection  of  the  spurious  faith  in  the  Letter 
on  Theron  and  Aspasio,"  etc.,  Dundee,  1761. 

'•A  Letter  from  a  Friend  in  the  Country  to  a  Friend  in  Town,"  London,  1761.  The 
other  tract  was  '-An  Inquiry  into  the  Spirit  and  Tendency  of  the  Letters  on  Theron  and 
Aspasio,"  Edinburgh,  1761. 

e Quoted  by  Sandeman.  Letters,  ed.  176s,  359,  360. 

/Ibid.,  359. 

;/•' Palaemon's  Creed  Reviewed  and  Examined,"  etc.,  London,  1761;  Edinburgh.  1762. 

><  "^Twelve  Sermons."  etc.,  Boston,  1765. 

I  "An  Impartial  Examination  of  Mr.  Robert  Sandeman's  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspa- 
Boston,  1765-1769. 

j  "True  Faith  will  produce  Good  Works."  etc.,  Boston,  1767. 

A"  Strictures  on  Sandemanianism  in  Twelve  Letters  to  a  Friend."  In  Works,  ed.  Bos- 
ton. ls33,  1,553-619. 


142  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL  'ASSOCIATION. 

To  all  the  early  part  of  this  mass  of  condemnatory  attack 
Glas  and  Sandeman  opposed  a  confident  and  vigorous  defense. 
issuing  Glas's  collected  Works"  and  repeated  editions  of  San- 
deman's  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio,  to  which  the  author 
added  appendices  answering  the  principal  charges  of  his  oppo- 
nents with  ability.  And  besides  these  more  public  expositions 
of  his  faith,  Sandeman  wrote  many  private  letters  to  inquirers 
and  preached  much.  One  such  correspondence  with  a  Con- 
gregational lay  preacher  at  London.  John  Barnard,  begun  a 
year  later  than  his  exchange  of  letters  with  Rev.  Samuel  Pike, 
of  the  same  city,  and  aided  by  a  personal  interview  between 
Barnard  and  Glas,  resulted  in  a  visit  of  a  Scotch  delegation  to 
London,  with  Sandeman  at  its  head,  in  April,  1761,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  Sandemanian  church  there  that  still  exists. h 
At  about  the  same  time  a  similar  correspondence  was  begun 
which  led  to  the  formation  of  a  Sandemanian  church  in  Not- 
tingham, in  April.  1768/  Other  churches  of  this  order  were 
formed,  or  small  congregations  gathered,  between  1761  and 
1769,  at  Liverpool,  Colne,  Whitehaven,  Newcastle,  Gayle, 
Newby.  Kirbv-Stevin.  Kirby-Lonsdale,  and  in  Norfolk/*  and 
also  at  Swansea,  in  Wales,  besides  little  unorganized  groups 
of  believers  in  Salisbury,  Trowbridge,  and  Weathersfield/ 
In  Ireland  a  church  was  in  existence  at  Dublin  by  1768,  though, 
as  it  was  reputed  Arian,  it  was  not  in  good  odor  with  the 
other  churches  of  the  Sandemanian  faith. f 

Yet  most  of  these  churches  were  very  small,9  and  Sande- 
man himself  was  compelled  to  tell  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles  at  New- 
port, in  1764.  that  his  communion  numbered  "only  Eighteen 
Chhs  in  the  World,  nine  in  Scotland  and  nine  in  England.  *  *  * 
Perhaps  600  [members]  in  Scotland  and  200  in  England/*7' 
This  was  certainly  a  scanty  growth  for  a  movement  which  had 
aroused  wide  controversy  and  was  then  more  than  thirty  years 
old.  There  is  much  reason  to  suppose  that  Sandeman's  view 
of  faith  had  won  much  wider  acceptance  than  the  bounds  of 

a  Edinburgh,  1761-62. 

&Much  of  this  correspondence  is  given  in  the  "Supplementary  Volume." 

o  Supplementary  Volume,  65. 

d  At  Banham,  ibid.,  64,  but  generally  spoken  of  as  "  the  church  in  Norfolk." 

« These  facts  are  gathered  from  various  letters  in  the  "Letters  in  Correspondence" 
and  "Supplementary  Volume." 

/Supplementary  Volume,  67. 

f/The  Supplementary  Volume  shows  that  in  1768-69,  while  London  counted  149  members, 
Colne  and  Norfolk  had  37  each.  Nottingham  and  Liverpool  18  each;  that  at  Newcastle 
ua>  very  "low." 

/'  Stiles  MSS..  in  possession  of  Yale  University. 


THE  SANDKMANIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     14H 

his  fellowship.  The  Scottish  Baptists  were  far  from  being 
Glasites,  yet  Andrew  Fuller  found  them  much  influenced  l>\ 
the  Glasite  theory  of  (li«i  way  of  salvation,  and  a  number  of 
instances  can  be  citc<l  of  men  in  America  who  thought  well  of 
Sandeman's  conception  of  faith,  but  never  were  willing  to  join 
the  Sandemanian  communion. a  One  prime  reason  was,  as 
Sandeman  himself  declared  of  his  churches:  "  We  admit  none 
to  communion  with  us  but  those  who,  professing  the  same  faith, 
at  the  same  time  profess  subjection  to  our  discipline."*  That 
discipline  involved  a  strenuous  and  literalistic  attempt  to  repro- 
duce the  usages  of  primitive  Christianity,  and  a  peculiar  form 
of  public  worship — the  two  constituting  as  characteristic 
features  of  Sandemanian  ism  as  its  doctrine  regarding-  faith. 

A  brief  memorandum,  written  apparently  by  Rev.  Robert 
Ferrier,  who  served  as  "  elder"  in  the  churches  of  Dundee 
and  Edinburgh,  shows  that  the  conformity  of  their  usages 
and  worship  to  the  supposed  requirements  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  a  process  of  gradual  growth,  due  to  increasing 
study  of  the  Scriptures  by  the  earry  Glasites  of  Tealing  and 
Hundee,  and  not  to  the  influence  of  Glas  alone/  But  before 
the  Glasite  separation  was  a  decade  old  these  peculiarities  had 
been  fully  developed.  The  best  and  most  authoritative  account 
of  them  is  that  from  the  pen  of  Samuel  Pike,  " elder"  of  the 
London  church.  It  seems  to  have  been  regarded  ever  since 
as  an  adequate  statement  of  their  usages  by  the  Sandemanian 
body.  d    Their  fundamental  principles  are  thus  stated:5 

1.  We  think  ourselves  obliged  to  regard  all  the  words  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  in  their  plain,  obvious,  and  original  Meaning;  looking  upon  every 
Precept  in  the  New  Testament  (except  such  as  may  relate  to  what  is  prop- 
erly miraculous)  to  be  binding  upon  us  now,  as  much  as  upon  the  first 
Churches./ 

<*  A  letter  of  Rev.  Chauney  Whittelsey  to  Ezra  Stiles,  of  March  9, 1765,  in  possession  of 
Yale  University,  shows  this. 

t>  Supplementary  Volume,  47. 

r  Ibid.,  Appendix,  iii-v. 

dOn  its  authorship,  see  a  letter  of  John  Barnard  of  June  28, 1766,  "Supplementary  Vol- 
ume," 64.  The  copy  from  which  quotations  are  here  made  is  entitled  "A  Plain  and 
Full  Account  of  the  Christian  Practices  observed  by  the  Church  in  St.  Martin's-le-grand, 
London,  and  other  Churches  (commonly  called  Sandemanian)  in  Fellowship  with  them, 
in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend,"  Boston,  1766,  pp.  28.  This  treatise  was  reprinted  as  recently  as 
1879,  or  1880,  as  "An  Account  of  the  Christian  Practices  observed  by  the  Church  in  Barns- 
bury  Grove,  Barnsbury,  London  (formerly  in  Paul's  Alley,  Red  Cross  street),  and  other 
Churches  in  Fellowship  with  them,  in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend." 

elbid.,  4. 

/  ••  We  dare  not  esteem  any  of  the  Precepts  or  Duties  of  the  Gospel  trivial  or  punctilious- 
*  *  *  Knowing  that  Man  fell  at  first  and  ruined  all  his  Posterity,  by  the  Breach,  not 
of  a  moral,  but  of  a  positive  Precept;  even  such  an  one  as  our  Reason  would  be  apt  to 
judge  punctilious,  trivial  and  circumstantial."    Ibid.,  4. 


144  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

2.  We  think  ourselves  hound  to  follow  the  Practices  of  the  primitive 
Disciples  and  Churches  as  far  as  we  can  learn  from  the  New  Testament  how 
they  walked,  while  the  Apostles  were  with  them,  beholding  their  Order 
and  Steadfastness  in  the  Faith. 

."».  We  think  ourselves  also  hound  carefully  to  avoid  all  the  Things  for 
which  they  were  reproved,  by  Our  Lord  or  His  Apostles. 

In  their  organization  the  Sandemanian  churches  were  Con- 
gregational, and  each  was  to  he  presided  over  by  not  less  than 
two  "elders,"  since  they  deemed  a  "plurality  of  elders"  a 
Scripture  requirement.0  An  "elder'*  must  have  the  "scrip- 
tural qualifications"  laid  down  in  the  First  Epistle  to  Tim- 
othy, and  no  man  who  has  married  a  second  time  can  till  the 
office,  though  that  prohibition  was  not  believed  to  extend  to 
the  ordinary  membership.  But  "human  learning"  is  not 
part  of  the  necessary  equipment  of  an  "elder,"  since  the 
Scriptures  do  not  demand  it.  On  the  contrary,  the  Scriptures 
encourage  "elders"  to  engage  "in  trade  and  merchandise, 
or  any  lawful  employment  in  life."  "Elders"  were  to  be 
chosen  to  office  by  the  membership  of  the  church  they  served, 
and  ordained  by  other  "elders"  by  laying  on  of  hands  and 
the  "  right  hand  of  fellowship."6  The  Sandemanians  rejected 
a  paid  ministry.'  With  the  "elders "  were  associated  deacons, 
who  were  chosen  and  ordained  in  very  similar  fashion,  though 
without  the  "right  hand  of  fellowship."'7 

The  membership  was  received  on  profession  of  faith  and 
examination  by  the  entire  church,  and  was  welcomed  with 
"imposition  of  hands"  and  the  "holy  kiss."*  Members  were 
cut  off  by  excommunication  by  vote  of  the  whole  church,  and. 
though  to  be  restored  once  on  repentance,  could  not  be 
received  again  after  a  second  excommunication/ 

All  church  action  must  be  unanimous*/7  and,  that  this  un- 
animity be  real,  each  member  was  summoned  by  name  to  give 
his  opinion.  If  unanimity  did  not  appear,  "  the  reasons  of 
the  dissent  are  thereupon  proposed  and  considered.     If  they 

a  ••  We  therefore  think  it  necessary  that  there  should  be  two  elders,  at  least,  present  in 
every  act  of  discipline,  and  at  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.    Ibid.,  15. 

b These  fac),s  are  gleaned  from  Ibid.,  pp.  15-17. 

cSuch  was  the  aversion  of  Hon.  Daniel  Humphreys,  a  Yale  graduate  of  17n7,  who 
became  United  States  district  attorney  for  New  Hampshire,  to  a  paid  ministry  that  he 
would  not  stay  in  court  while  such  a  minister  offered  prayer.  Dexter,  -Biographical 
Sketches  of  the  Graduates  of  Yale  College,"  II,  472. 

(>X  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc..  p.  17. 

'ibid.,  18. 

f  [bid.,  18-21.  "  If  this  person  should  incur  the  censure  of  the  church  after  this  second 
reception  and  be  cast  out,  we  dare  not  receive  him  again." 

g  Ibid.,  22,  23. 


THE    SANDEMANIANS    OF    NEW    ENGLAND.  145 

are  scriptural,  the  whole  church  has  cause  to  change  it-  opin- 
ion; if  not,  and  the  person  persists  in  his  opposition  to  the 
Word  of  God,  the  church  is  bound  to  reject  him."a  This 
drastic  method  of  securing  united  action  by  the  excommuni- 
cation of  dissenters  was  a  constant  drain  on  the  Sandemanian 
churches/'  and  led  more  than  any  other  single  cause  to  their 
rapid  decline. 

The  religious  services  of  the  Sandemanians  attempted,  in  a 
similar  spirit,  to  reproduce  their  conception  of  the  worship 
of  the  primitive  disciples.     Prayer  they  emphasized  by  call 
ing  on  many  to  lead  the  congregation  in  supplication/ 

It  being  the  unquestionable  Duty  of  a  Church  to  continue  instant  in 
Piaver,  not  only  the  Elders  or  Pastors  of  the  Church  are  ingaged  in  this 
Duty  ;  but  likewise  the  Brethren  are  called  upon  by  Name,  three  or  four, 
and  sometimes  more,  to  ingage  in  it.  *  *  *  At  the  conclusion  of 
every  Prayer,  whether  pronounced  by  the  Elders  or  the  Brethren,  the 
whole  Church  say  Amen. 

In  singing  they  made  "use  of  the  Psalms  of  David  in  a 
metrical  translation  that  is  nearest  to  the  original;  "<*  yet  they 
did  not  confine  themselves  to  these  versified  portions  of  Holy 
Writ,  but  at  certain  services  sang  from  a  collection  of  hymns 
of  their  own — the  "Christian  Songs." 

The  reading  of  the  Scriptures  occupied  a  large  place  in 
their  worship,  "no  less  than  four  or  five  Chapters  being  read 
in  the  Morning  Service  and  as  many  in  the  Afternoon;  so  con- 
ducted, that  in  a  Course  of  Time,  no  part  of  the  sacred  Word 
is  omitted." e  Every  Sunday  afternoon,  as  a  part  of  the  serv- 
ice, a  collection  was  taken,  the  Lord's  Supper  administered, 
"in  the  most  simple  Form,  according  to  the    Scripture,"^ 

a  a  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc.,  23. 

'<]•:.  g.,  John  Barnard  wrote  to  Robert  Sandeman,  January  14,  1709,  "  The  church  in 
London  has  put  away  nine  in  about  rive  months,  and  received  but  one."  Barnard  him- 
self was  "  pul  away  "  in  1771.    See  Supplementary  Volume,  67,  107. 

<■  A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc.,  6,  7. 

rflbid.,  7.  James  Cargill,  a  Glasite  "elder"  who  accompanied  Sandeman  to  America, 
told  Ezra  Stiles  at  Newport  that  they  preferred  the  Scotch  psalms,  but  at  the  "Love 
Feast"  they  sang  "a  hymn  of  their  own  composition."  (Papers  in  Yale  University.)  A 
Sandemanian  hymn  book  was  early  published.  The  only  edition  I  have  been  able  to  Bee 
is  the  twelfth— -Christian  Songs,"  Dundee,  1841.  Some  of  these  hymns  in  their  earliest 
form,  by  Sandeman  and  others,  are  printed  in  the  often  cited  Supplementary  Volume, 
Appendix  xlvi-1. 

e  A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  7.  Cargill  told  Stiles,  "  There  are  read  three  Chapters  out 
ot  the  Law  and  three  Chapters  out  of  the  Prophets:— by  Law  they  mean  only  the  Pente- 
teucb   all  the  rest  of  the  Old  Test,  beginning  with  Joshua  is  Prophets." 

/Ibid.,  10. 

H.  Doc.  702,  pt.  1 10 


146  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

and  the  "Christian  Duty'-  of  " Exhortation "  fulfilled— "the 

Brethren  [being]  called  upon  to  exhort  one  another:  or  to 
propose  a  Question  for  Edification,  on  some  Portion  of 
Scripture."" 

Between  the  morning  and  the  afternoon  services  the  weekly 
'kLove  Feast"  was  held,  in  which  every  member  was  ex- 
pected to  share  unless  prevented  by  reasons  of  very  special 
force,  and  these  common  meals  were  held  in  turn  at  the 
"  Houses  of  such  of  the  Brethren  who  live  sufficiently  near"8 
to  the  church,  or  where  the  congregation  was  large  it  was 
divided  into  convenient  groups  and  met  in  several  houses  at 
the  same  hour. 

Preaching  or  expounding,  the  sermon  being  ;;  about  an 
hour*'  in  length,  was  also  a  feature  of  the  services  both  of  the 
morning  and  the  afternoon/  And  beside  this  prolonged  wor- 
ship on  Sunday,  the  church  met  "on  Tuesday  and  Friday 
evenings  at  six  o'clock"^  for  a  briefer  service. 

It  is  evident,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  a  Sandemanian 
Sunday  must  have  been  a  very  busy  day  when  the  church 
was  in  a  flourishing  state.  Not  less  than  six  hours,  or  if  the 
love  feast  be  reckoned,  not  less  than  eight  hours,  were  de- 
voted to  public  worship.  A  less  confused  conception  of  the 
order  of  a  Sandemanian  service  than  that  which  has  probably 
been  left  on  the  mind  of  the  reader  from  the  consideration 
just  concluded  may  be  gained  from  an  outline  drawn  up  by 
Ezra  Stiles  after  a  talk  at  Newport,  in  1764.  with  James 
Cargill.  one  of  Sandeman's  most  trusted  companions,  which 
pictures  the  Sandemanian  public  worship  with  substantial 
accuracy. 

«  A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  ete.,  10. 

b  Ibid.,  7.  Cargill  told  Stiles:  ••  The  Intermission  is  spent  in  the  Love  Feasts;  for  which 
End  they  divide  into  as  many  Companies  as  convenient  (a  Chh  of  60,  for  Instance,  into 
4  parts)  for  each  of  which  a  house  &  Dinner  is  ready — for  the  Chh  of  Edenburgh  about 
four  houses  provide  every  Sabbath,  4  others  the  next  Sabbath,  &  so  on  in  Succession 
thro'  all  the  families  except  poor  &  Servants  &c.  for  whose  Turns  the  Chh  Stock  makes 
provision.  At  Dinner  they  converse  on  divine  Subjects  &  sing  a  Hymn  of  their  own 
Composition." 

••Ibid.,  7.    The  length  is  given  in  Cargill' s  conversation  with  Stiles. 

''Ibid.,  11.    At  Danbnry  the  weekly  meeting  was  on  Thursday. 

e  From  the  conversation  already  often  cited,  the  notes  of  which  are  preserved  in  the 
Stiles  manuscripts  in  the  possession  of  Yale  University. 


THE    SANDEMANIANS    OF    NEW    ENGLAND.  147 

FORENOON. 

Lordsday.  IX  A  Begin  with  Singing. 

An  Elder  prays  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Sing.    Then  the  Elders  call  up  4  Brothers  in  succession. 
First  Brother  prays. 
Sing. 

Second  Brother  prays. 
Sing. 

Third  Brother  prays. 
Sing. 

Fourth  Brother  prays. 

Sing.     The  doors  thrown  open  [to  t lie  general  public]. 
X  h  An  Elder  asks  a  Blessing  on  the  Word  read. 
Three  Chapters  of  the  Law  read. 
Three  Chapters  of  the  Prophets  read. 
Singing. 
XI  h  An  Elder  prays  for  a  Blessing  on  the  Word  preached. 
A  n  Elder  preaches  about  an  hour, 
And  makes  a  short  prayer. 
Sing. 
Noon  Xll  Assemby  dismissed  with  a  Blessing. 

Intermission  spent  in  the  Love  Feasts,  closed  with  a 
Hymn  of  their  own  composition. 

AFTERNOON. 

II  A  Begin  with  Singing.     Open  Doors. 
The  Lord's  Prayer. 
Sing. 

An  Elder  asks  a  Blessing  on  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures. 
Three  Chapters  read  out  of  the  New  Testament. 
Singing,  I  think. 

III  >'  An  Elder  asks  a  Blessing  on  preaching  the  Word. 

A  Sermon  about  an  hour. 

The  Assembly  dismissed:  and  Chh  stay  &  Doors  shut, 

I V  >'   Fellowship  or  Contribution  of  the  Saints. 

An  Elder  blesses  and  consecrates  the  Sacramental  Ele- 
ments. 

The  Elements  carried  about  by  the  Deacons.  Partici- 
pation. 

After  Sacrament  they  sing. 

An  Elder  asks  a  Blessing  on  the  Word  of  Exhortation. 

Every  Male  Member  rises  and  gives  a  short  Word  of 
Exhortation.  And  this  they  call  the  Nursery  of  their 
Ministers,  as  here  are  exhibited  each  ones  Abilities 
and  Aptness  to  teach. 

An  Elder  dismisses  the  Chh  with  the  Blessing. 


148  AMERICAN   HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

Aiming  thus  at  an  extremely  literal  conformity  to  all  the 
usages  and  hints  of  usages  of  the  early  church,  they  were 
marked  by  some  peculiarities  that  provoked  the  ridicule  of 
those  who  were  without.  Such  a  custom  was  that  of  the 
fc'holy  kiss,"  which  was  observed  as  a  "  divinely  appointed 
Mean  for  promoting  that  mutual  Love  which  is  essential  to 
true  Christianity."  It  was  used  "  not  only  at  the  Love  Feast 
(when  each  Member  salutes  the  Person  that  sits  next  him  on 
each  side)  but  at  the  admission  of  a  Member,  and  at  other  times 
occasionally.  "a  A  custom  similarly  open  to  criticism,  as  prac- 
ticed in  the  conditions  of  modern  society,  was  that  of  ''wash- 
ing one  another's  Feet;"6  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
usage,  like  that  of  the  kiss,  was  adopted  from  a  most  simple- 
minded  desire  to  follow  what  they  deemed  the  divinely 
appointed  model  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  Of  course  the 
eating  of  "Blood  &  Things  strangled"  was  likewise  pro- 
hibited; c  but  a  more  unusual  feature  of  this  discipline  was 
their  firm  belief  that  it  is  ""unlawful  to  lay  up  Treasures  on 
Earth,  by  setting  them  apart  for  any  distant,  future,  uncer- 
tain use.  But  think  it  incumbent  ...  to  la>T  up  Treasure 
in  Heaven,  by  giving  Alms.  ...  A  Reluctance  to  this, 
we  esteem  one  plain  Effect  and  Evidence  of  Covetovs)iess."d 
This  was  a  prohibition  of  saving  foreign  alike  to  the  Scotch 
and  the  New  England  temper,  and  it  led  to  more  church 
discipline  among  the  early  Sandemanians  than  any  other  arti- 
cle of  their  creed/  A  strict  interpretation  of  the  Scriptural 
injunctions  to  obedience  to  rulers -^  led  them  to  emphasize 
lo}7alty  to  the  King  in  a  way  that  not  only  made  Tories  of 
most- early  American  Sandemanians,  but  exposed  them  to  the 
hostility  of  those  who  did  not  regard  submission  to  the 
British  monarch  as  so  binding  a  duty. 

And  it  must  be  said,  also,  that  undoubtedly  sincere  as  the 
Sandemanians  were  in  their  zeal  for  a  literal  conformity  to  the 
teachings   of  Scripture,  they  carried  with  it  a  conscientious 

«A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc.,  9.  Though  the  Account  speaks  of  this  custom  as 
"divinely  appointed,"  Sandeman  told  Stiles  that  they  "did  not  observe  these  customs 
[kiss  and  foot-washing]  as  divine  institutions,  but  rather  as  exemplary  institutions  of  the 
primitive  Christians." 

b  Ibid.,  12. 

c  Ibid. 

d  Ibid.  ,13. 

eThis  is  expressly  asserted  by  James  Morrison  in  the  preface  to  the  "  Supplementary 
Volume,"  p.  iv.  A  curious  illustration  may  be  seen  in  Sandeman's  letter  of  warning 
and  exhortation  to  his  own  father,  Ibid.,  Appendix,  XV. 

/A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc.,  13. 


THE  SANDEMANIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     149 

and  separatist  spirit  of  exclusiveness  that  forbade  them  to 
have  any  Christian  fellowship  with  those  who  did  do!  think 
exactly  as  they  did.  Confident  that  fchey  alone  possessed  the 
truth  and  were  fully  followers  of  Christ,  they  refused  all 
communion  with  any  outside  their  fold.  Their  charity  in 
almsgiving  was  great.  They  would  oot  allow  even  the  poorest 
of  the  flock  to  become  public  charges  if  they  could  help  it  by 
gifts.  But  charity  toward  differing  views  they  repudiated. 
As  Sandeman  remarked: " 

Modern  charity,  however  benevolent  it  may  seem,  bears  the  same  aspect 
towards  the  real  interest  of  mankind,  as  the  insinuating  address  of  that 
spirit,  who  first  taught,  and  still  continues  to  teach  mankind,  to  disregard 
the  words  of  their  Creator  with  hopes  of  impunity.  *  *  *  What  avails 
it  what  set  of  principles  we  choose  to  stamp  as  properly  our  own,  while 
we  join  in  the  friendly  alliance  of  charity  with  determined  promoters  of 
impiety  and  inhumanity? 

Samuel  Pike,  in  setting  forth  the  principles  of  the  Sande- 
manian  body,  said:* 

We  are  obliged  to  separate  from  the  Communion  and  Worship  of  all 
such  religions  Societies,  as  appear  to  us  to  be  not  professing  the  simple 
Truth  for  their  only  Ground  of  Hope,  or  not  walking  in  Obedience  to  it. 

And  this  spirit  of  exclusiveness  was  characteristic  of  the 
whole  Sandemanian  communion. 

The  Glasite  and  Sandemanian  movement  had  taken  on  all  its 
characteristic  features,  and  the  larger  part  of  its  literature  had 
been  published  before  Sandeman  came  to  America.  That 
missionary  journey  was  induced  by  hopes  of  planting  Sande- 
manian churches  in  New  England,  which  correspondence  with 
New  England  readers  of  the  Letters  on  Theron  and  Aspasio  had 
aroused/  Chief  among  these  correspondents  was  Rev.  Ebe- 
nezer  White,  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  the  class  of  1733,  who  had 
been  pastor  of  the  church  in  Danbuiy,  Conn.,  since  March  10, 
1736. d    As  far  as  New  England  had  been  affected  by  Sande- 

n  Letters  on  Therou  and  Aspasio,  ed.  1765,  II:  298. 

b  A  Plain  and  Full  Account,  etc.,  2G. 

c  Stiles  says  in  a  manuscript  of  1764,  preserved  in  the  Library  of  Yale  University:  "These 
letters  in  2  volumes  12°  came  to  New  England,  1760,  brought  hither  upon  the  recommen- 
dation of  Rev.  Mr.  dimming,  of  Boston.  They  had  an  effect  on  Rev.  Mr.  White,  of  Dan- 
bury,  in  Connecticut,  who,  1763,  wrote  Mr.  Sandeman  upon  them." 

Rev.  Alexander  Cumming,  1726-1763,  from  February  25, 1761,  to  his  death  was  colleague 
pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston. 

riSee  F.  B.  Dexter,  "  Biog.  Sketches  of  the  Graduates  of  Yale  College,"  1:499-502;  and 
J.  L.  Hough,  "The  First  Cong.  Church  in  Danbury,"  Danbury,  1876,  p.  5.  Two  undated 
letters  to  Sandeman,  the  first  signed  by  Rev.  David  Judson,  pastor  of  the  church  in  New- 
town, Conn.,  from  1743  to  1776,  and  the  second  signed  by  Rev.  Ebenezer  White  and  his 
sons,  Joseph  Moss  White  and  Ebenezer  Russell  White,  are  printed  in  the  "  Letters  in  Cor- 


150  AMEEICAN   HISTORICAL   ASSOCIATION. 

man's  teachings,  it  had  been  his  doctrine  of  faith  rather  than 
his  ecclesiastical  practices  that  had  won  assent.  This  had  been 
true  of  White,  who  seems  to  have  adopted  Sandeman's  theory 
of  the  way  of  salvation  as  early  as  1762,  and  who  certainly 
had  suffered  for  his  views  before  Sandeman's  coming-.  More 
than  a  year  before  Sandeman  sailed  from  Scotland  a  council 
of  the  local  Congregational  Consociation,  met  at  Danbury  on 
August  1, 1763/'  had  put  White  on  probation  as  a  man  charge- 
able with  heresy.  On  January  3,  1764,  a  joint  council  com- 
posed of  both  the  consociations  of  Fairfield  County  had  assem- 
bled and  found  White  guilty  of  unsound  doctrine;  and  in 
March  following  a  second  meeting  of  this  joint  council  had 
declared  White  dismissed  from  his  pastorate.  That  decision 
the  pastor  and  a  majority  of  his  flock  refused  to  accept,  and 
White,  with  a  fraction  of  this  sympathetic  majority,  then 
formed  the  "New  Danbury  Church."  Nor  was  White  the 
only  minister  influenced  by  Sandeman's  views.  His  clerical 
neighbor,  Rev.  James  Taylor,  of  New  Fairfield,  a  graduate  of 
Yale  in  the  class  of  1754,  was  suspected  of  a  sympathy  with 
Sandemanianism  so  positive  that  it  led  to  an  ecclesiastical  trial 
in  May,  1763,  and  his  silencing  by  the  Fairfield  East  Consoci- 
ation.6 Another  neighbor,  Rev.  David  Judson,  of  Newtown, 
like  White  and  Taylor,  a  son  of  Yale,  had  written  to  Sande- 
man a  guarded  letter  early  in  1763, c  and  the  Whites,  in  their  cor- 
respondence, had  claimed  four  other  ministers  of  the  vicinage, 
apparently  with  less  justice,  as  full  sympathizers. d    Sande- 

respondence,"  pp.  71-74.  Internal  evidence  agrees  with  Stiles's  statement,  above  quoted, 
that  this  correspondence  was  early  in  1763.  They  speak  of  having  read  the  Letters  on 
Theron  and  Aspasio  "about  two  years  since."  Judson  refers  to  White  as  "under  difficul- 
ties and  trials  on  account  of  his  religious  sentiments."  The  Whites  express  their  satis- 
faction with  Sandeman's  "sentiments  of  religion,"  and  ask  for  further  books  of  which 
they  have  heard  to  the  value  of  "£20  or  £30." 

a  Dexter  and  Hough,  as  cited. 

l>  Dexter,  Biographical  Sketches,  11:350. 

c  Already  mentioned  in  these  notes.  It  is  in  the  Letters  in  Correspondence,  pp.  71,  72. 
For  his  biography  see  Dexter,  Biographical  Sketches,  1 :  602, 603.    He  was  of  the  class  of  1738. 

dThe  Whites,  Letters  in  Correspondence,  73,  say:  "  But  we  are  not  the  only  persons  who 
rejoice  in  the  light  which  has  been  communicated  in  these  letters  [on  Theron  and  As- 
pasio];  for  there  are  some  few  others,  viz,  Messrs.  Judson,  Beeba,  Whetmore,  Taylor, 
Brooks,  and  Gregory,  pastors  of  the  churches  in  Newton,  Stratford,  Newf airfield, Newberry, 
and  Philippi,  that  live  near  us,  who  have  expressed  themselves  as  much  edified  by  them 
as  ourselves."  Besides  Judson  and  Taylor,  already  spoken  of,  those  here  mentioned  were 
Rev.  James  Beebe,  Yale,  1745,  of  what  is  now  Trumbull;  Rev.  Izrahiah  Wetmore,  Yale, 
1748,  of  Stratford;  Rev.  Thomas  Brooks,  Yale,  1755,  of  what  is  now  Brookfield,  and  Rev. 
Elnathan  Gregory,  Princeton,  1757,  of  the  parish  then  known  as  Philippi,  but  now  South 
East,  Putnam  Co.,  N.  Y.  Notices  of  Beebe,  Wetmore,  and  Brooks  may  be  found  in  Dex- 
ter, Biographical  Sketches,  11:20,  194,  366.  All  these  remained  in  office,  though  Wetmore 
was  thought  "for  a  while"  to  be  too  much  of  Sandeman's  way  of  thinking.  See  letter 
of  Rev.  Nathan  Birdseye,  in  Dexter,  Ibid.,  11:194. 


THE  SANDKM  A  MANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     151 

man  might  well  count  on  a  friendly  reception  in  New  Eng- 
land, though  it  docs  not  appear  thai  a  formal  invitation  was 

sent  to  him  to  cross  the  Atlantic." 

Moved  thus  by  the  sympathy  with  which  his  views  had 
already  been  received,  Sandeman  sailed  from  Glasgow  on  the 
"new  ship  George,"  August  10, 1704,  accompanied  by  James 
Cargill,  "elder"  of  the  church  at  Dunkeld,  and  landed  at  Bos- 
ton on  the  18th  of  October  following.6  After  a  week's  stay 
in  Boston r  he  went  to  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  where  he  had  en- 
couragement; but  by  November  JO  Sandeman  and  Cargill 
were  back  in  Boston  determined  to  go  to  Danbury.  On 
November  19  they  reached  Providence,  R.  L,  where  Andrew 
Olifant,  a  Scottish  Glasite,  then  resident  in  that  place,  joined 
them/  On  the  28th  they  reached  Newport.  There  Sandeman 
preached  in  the  hearing  of  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles/  then  a  pastor  at 
Newport,  and  afterwards  president  of  Yale;  and  Stiles  improved 
the  opportunity  to  learn  what  he  could  of  the  views  and  meth- 
ods of  these  Sandemanian  apostles.  At  Newport  they  em- 
barked on  December  6,  intending  to  go  to  Norwalk  by  water, 
as  the  quickest  route  to  Danbury,  but  head  winds  forced  the 
vessel  into  Stonington  Harbor,  and  Sandeman  embraced  the 
opportunity  to  preach  at  Groton.  About  December  20  they 
were  in  Norwalk  at  last,  and  thence  reached  Danbury  prob- 
ably four  days  before  Christmas.  Here  they  "met  a  kind 
reception  from  Mr.  White  and  his  friends,'' and  "tarried  near 
two  months."-^ 

a  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon,  Diet.  National  Biog.,  L:256,  following  D.  Mitchelson's  state- 
ment in  his  Biographical  Sketch  of  Sandeman,  p.  xi,  says  that  Sandeman  came  by  invi- 
tation; but  Sandeman  told  Stiles  that  he  was  not  invited,  and  a  letter  of  John  Glaa  to 
Sandeman,  dated  May  16,  Jt7G3,  says:  "  I  can  not  help  thinking  your  motion  toward  New 
England  is  from  the  Lord  calling  you  by  what  they  wrote  and  by  inclining  your  heart 
toward  the  writers."  Letters  in  Correspondence,  p.  75.  The  reference  seems  unquestion- 
ably to  the  letters  of  Judson  and  the  Whites,  already  cited;  but  those  letters,  though 
warmly  appreciative,  contain  no  invitation. 

b  The  ship  and  date  of  sailing  is  given  in  a  letter  of  Thomas  Sandeman,  Letters  in  Cor- 
respondence, p.  80.  The  date  of  landing  I  take  from  an  admirable  paper  by  Mr.  Henry 
H.  Edes  on  the  '•Places  of  Worship  of  the  Sandemanians in  Boston,"  published  in  the 
"Publications  of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Massachusetts,  Transactions."  VI  :109-130. 

'•This  and  the  following  dates  and  itinerary  are  from  Stiles' s  manuscript 

dlbid.,  Stiles  reports  that  olifant  had  come  to  New  England  about  1740.  Before  mak- 
ing his  home  in  Providence  he  had  lived  at  Dedham. 

e  Sandeman  was  46  years  old.  Stiles,  ibid.,  thus  describes  his  appearance:  "He  is  of  mid- 
dling Stature,  dark  Complexion,  a  good  Eye,  uses  accurate  Language,  but  not  eloquent  in 
utterance,  has  not  a  melodious  voice,  his  expressions  governed  by  Sentiment,  his  Dialect 
Scotch,  not  graceful  in  his  Air  and  Address,  yet  has  something  which  deforces  attention, 
and  this  is  chiefly  by  the  Sentiments  he  infuses  or  excites  in  his  Auditory,— generally  grave 
and  decent,  and  not  a  noisy  speaker." 

/  Stiles' s  manuscript.  In  a  letter  of  Jan.  20, 1765,  they  speak  of  having  then  been  in  Dan- 
bury "thirty  days."— Letters  in  Correspondence,  p.  78. 


152  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

But  though  Rev.  Ebenezer  White  sympathized  with  Sande- 
man's  view  of  faith,  he  did  not  approve  of  his  church  disci- 
pline/' and  therefore,  though  Sandeman  sowed  seed  in  Danbury 
which  was  not  long  after  to  ripen  into  a  harvest,  no  Sandema- 
nian  church  sprang  up  there  at  once,  as  the  Scotch  missionary 
may  have  well  expected.  But  Connecticut  was  considerably 
stirred.  A  letter  from  Rev.  James  Dana,  of  Wallingford, 
Conn.,  to  Ezra  Stiles,  written  January  18,  1765,  gives  a 
glimpse :  * 

We  don't  much  expect  a  visit  from  him  [Sandeman]  in  this  county. 
Mr.  Clapp  c  suspends  his  judgment  of  him.  Mr.  Bird^  anti-preaches  him, 
Mr.  Williston  e  appears  to  be  in  his  scheme  as  far  as  ye  times  will  permit. 
Mr.  Woodhull/  resents  what  you  wrrote  of  him  [Sandeman]  to  brothr 
Chauncey  Whittelsey.  Q 

By  the  following  summer,  President  Clap  had  so  far  made 
up  his  mind  as  to  force  not  only  the  Richard  Woodhull  men- 
tioned in  this  letter,  but  Rev.  Ebenezer  White's  son,  Ebenezer 
Russell  White, h  from  their  tutorships  at  Yale  College  on 
account  of  their  sympathy  with  Sandeman's  opinions. 

Not  being  immediately  successful,  Sandeman  left  Danbury 
about  the  middle  of  February,  1765/  and  on  the  19th  or  20th 
was  in  New  York.  Thence  he  pushed  on  to  Philadelphia,  but 
found  the  prospect  there  discouraging,  and  on  March  13th  or 
14th  was  in  New  London,  Conn.,  where  he  spent  a  fortnight. 
The  first  week  in  April,  1765,  saw  him  in  Providence,  and 
from  thence  he  journied  to  Portsmouth,  reaching  there  on 
April  20.  At  Portsmouth,  on  May  4,  1765/"  the  first  Sande- 
manian  church  in  America  was  formed,  and  though  the  body 

a  Sandeman,  Cargill,  and  Olifant  declared  their  regret  that  though  "  the  Scripture  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  grace  through  faith"  was  held  at  Danbury,  yet  it  "was  not 
attended  with  the  proper  fruits,"  nor  by  "Christian  separation  to  observe  Christ's  com- 
mand of  brotherly  love,  and  the  rest  of  the  ordinances  practised  by  the  first  churches." 
See  their  letter  of  Jan.  20, 1765,  to  their  Danbury  friends,  in  D.  Mitchelson,  Discourses, 
xii.  xiii.    See  also  Letters  in  Correspondence,  97-99. 

b  In  possession  of  Yale  University. 

c  Thomas  Clap,  President  of  Yale,  1739-1766. 

dRev.  Samuel  Bird,  of  the  "  White  Haven,"  now  "  United"  Church  in  New  Haven. 

eRev.  Noah  Williston,  Yale,  1757,  pastor  at  West  Haven.  See  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches, 
etc.,  II:  502-504. 

/Richard  Woodhull,  Yale,  1752.  He  lived  a  Sandemanian,  at  New  Haven,  till  his  death, 
Dec.  7, 1797.    See  Dexter,  ibid.,  II:  301,  302. 

gRev.  Chauncey  Whittelsey,  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  New  Haven. 

h  Yale,  1760.  See  Dexter,  ibid.,  II:  679,  680.  Of  him  there  will  be  further  occasion  to 
speak. 

i  These  dates  are  from  Stiles's  manuscript. 

3  D.  Mitchelson,  Discourses,  xiii,  Letters  in  Correspondence,  99. 


THE    SANDEMANIANS    OF    NEW    ENGLAOT).  153 

was  small, a  the  presence  in  it  of  one  or  two  men  of  menus  and 
position,  like  Nathaniel  Barrell,  a  merchant  and  member  of 
the  Governor's  council,6 enabled  it  speedily  to  ereel  a  meeting- 
house, which  was  first  occupied  on  July  28,  L765." 

From  Portsmouth,  where  he  spent  but  a  few  weeks.  Sande- 
man  went  to  Boston,  being  in  that  town  by  May  30,  L765.d 
This  visit  seems  to  have  resulted  in  the  immediate  formation 
of  a  church  in  Boston,  which  met  at  first  in  the  house  of 
Edward  Foster,  but  by  1769/  if  not  earlier,  had  a  meeting- 
house of  its  own.  Its  membership,  though  never  large, 
speedily  included  a  number  of  "persons  of  high  social  and 
political  standing. "^ 

It  would  seem  to  have  been  at  an  uncertain  date,  not  far 
from  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Boston  church,  that 
Rev.  ,Ebenezer  White's  son,  Joseph  Moss  White,?  gathered 
from  his  father's  separatist  congregation  at  Danbury  a  small 
society,  fully  Sandemanian  in  practice  as  well  as  in  doctrine, 
that  constituted  the  beginning  of  the  organized  Sandemanian 
church  at  Danbury. 

The  successful  inauguration  of  this  congregation  in  the  town 
where  Sandeman  had  most  anticipated  a  following  and  in  a 
region  where  his  earliest  and  most  numerous  American  sympa- 
tic zers  dwelt  seems  to  have  decided  him  to  make  it  his  residence. 
In  May,  1766,  he  was  still  in  eastern  New  England  engaged  in 
preaching  at  Portsmouth;7'  but  by  September  following  he 

a  Writing  to  Ezra  Stiles.  Sept.  7.  1766,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Langdon  said:  "I  am  informed 
that  16  Communicants  now  make  up  this  Chh.  They  all  discover  a  very  malevolent 
Spirit,  and  high  Enthusiasm  very  much  like  that  of  the  hottest  New  Lights,  however 
frigid  Sandeman's  notions  may  seem  to  his  readers."  Dexter,  The  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra 
Btiles,  New  York,  1901,  II:  171.  D.  Mitchelson,  Discourses,  xiii,  says:  "Exactly  a  year 
after  its  erection  it  numbered  eighteen  men  and  nine  women."  The  list  on  which  this 
statement  is  based  may  be  found  in  Letters  in  Correspondence,  p.  99. 

fr  Born  1732,  died  at  York,  Me.,  April  4,  1831.  He  was  a  recruiting  officer  under  Governor 
Shirley,  and  in  1760  visited  England  and  was  presented  at  court.  He  became  a  deacon  of 
the  Portsmouth  Sandemanian  church  in  1766,  but  on  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  he 
retired  to  a  farm  in  York,  Me.  He  represented  York  in  the  Massachusetts  legislature. 
His  brother,  Colburn  Barrell,  was  an  elder  of  the  Portsmouth  church,  and  afterwards 
prominent  in  that  at  Boston. 

'•Stiles's  manuscript:  "  the  new  Edifice  lately  erected  in  Divinity  Street." 

dlbid. 

e  Henry  H.  Edes,  in  paper  cited  above,  pp.  114,  117,  120. 

/Henry  H.  Edes,  ibid.,  114.  Mr.  Edes  gives  a  list  of  persons  prominent  in  this  church 
and  many  interesting  biographical  details. 

g  Yale,  1760.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Fairfield  East  Association,  on  Oct.  28, 
1761.  He  was  the  first  of  the  White  family  to  become  a  Sandemanian  in  practice.  He 
lived  all  his  life  at  Danbury,  and  died  July  10, 1822.  See  Dexter,  Biographical  Sketches, 
II:  681. 

h  Letter  in  Correspondence,  99. 


154  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

was  once  more  in  Connecticut; a  and  though  we  find  him  again 
at  Portsmouth  in  November,  1766,  it  seems  probable  that  he 
was  established  in  Danbury  soon  after,  and  thenceforth  made 
that  place4  his  headquarters.6  Here  he  lived,  for  a  time  at 
least,  in  the  house  of"  Asa  Church,  a  blacksmith."0  But  his 
strong  sense  of  the  obligation  of  loyalty  to  the  -British  Crown 
rendered  him  unpopular  in  the  days  of  political  ferment  in 
which  his  New  England  mission  fell.  Much  hostile  feeling 
was  shown  toward  him,  and  his  missionary  labors  met  with 
many  hindrances/7  In  the  midst  of  these  difficulties  he  died, 
on  April  2,  1771.  in  the  house  of  a  disciple,  Theophilus  Cham- 
berlain/ at  Danbury,  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  53. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  Sandeman's  early  death,  the  movement 
which  he  had  inaugurated  continued  to  spread  slowly  in 
New  England.  By  1771  (largely,  we  may  conjecture,  through 
Olifant's  influence)  there  was  a  small  church  at  Providence, 
R.  1/    The  next  year  a  portion,  at  least,  of  the  Danbury 

a  Rev.  Samuel  Langdon,  letter  of  September  17, 1766,  to  Ezra  Stiles,  in  Dexter,  "The 
Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,"  II,  171,  says,  '"about  thirty  persons  are  his  constant  Hearers, 
including  the  Chh.    His  Hearers,  I  said,  but  as  he  himself  is  now  in  Connecticut,"  etc. 

&An  unpublished  letter  of  Rev.  Samuel  Langdon,  among  the  Stiles  papers  in  Yale  Uni- 
versity, dated  November  18,  1766,  says  that  on  November  8,  previous,  Sandeman  had 
returned  to  Portsmouth  to  attempt  to  heal  a  dispute  in  the  church  there. 

f  Letter  of  Robert  Sandeman  to  his  brother  William,  of  March  27,  1770,  in  Letters  in 
Correspondence,  102.  Other  letters  show  that  he  was  in  Danbury  on  January  7,  and 
December  2, 1769;  in  New  Haven  on  December  27, 1769;  and  again  in  Danbury  on  January 
5  and  January  27,  1770.    Ibid.,  104-113. 

d  A  letter  of  Robert  Sandeman  to  his  brother  William,  dated  "  Danbury,  March  27, 1770", 
and  printed  in  Letters  in  Correspondence,  102-104,  gives  an  account  of  an  attempt  to  drive 
him  away  by  legal  prosecution.  On  February  28  his  host,  Asa  Church,  was  fined  £40  "for 
keeping  Bob  and  me  a  fortnight  in  his  house."  Church  appealed  to  the  county  court,  to 
meet  at  Fairfield  April  18.  The  "Bob"  referred  to  was  Sandeman's  nephew  and  name- 
sake, Robert,  son  of  his  brother  William,  and  now  a  boy  of  14.  Pending  the  hearing  of 
Church's  appeal  by  the  county  court,  Sandeman  and  his  ardent  disciple,  Theophilus 
Chamberlain,  of  whom  more  will  be  said,  were  brought  before  Thomas  Benedict,  long 
an  honored  justice  of  the  peace  and  probate  judge  at  Danbury,  charged  "as  liable  to  pay 
£40  each,  because  being  strangers  and  transient  persons,  we  had  remained  in  town  four 
weeks  after  being  warned  to  depart.  They  did  not  choose  to  charge  us  with  staying 
more  than  four  weeks,  for  that  would  have  made  the  fine  too  high  for  the  sentence  of  a 
single  justice."  The  hearing  was  March  19, 1770.  The  selectmen  "  were  the  plaintiffs." 
Sandeman  made  along  and  vigorous  defense,  urging  that  the  law  "was  intended  not 
against  harmless  strangers  but  against  persons  of  ungoverned  and  dishonest  conversa- 
tion". The  justice,  with  some  hesitation,  found  against  Sandeman  and  Chamberlain, 
but  took  no  steps  to  put  his  decision  into  execution;  and  Sandeman  wrote  to  his  brother: 
"We  said  nothing  on  hearing  judgment  given,  making  no  appeal.  It  is  thought,  how- 
ever, they  will  scarcely  have  courage  to  put  the  sentence  into  execution". 

el  owe  this  fact  to  Prof.  F.  B.  Dexter.  Other  facts  regarding  Chamberlain  will  be 
found  in  a  note  below. 

/Stiles  records,  under  date  of  November  17,  1771:  "There  is  a  small  Congrega  of 
Sandemanians  of  3  or  4  families  which  meet  every  Ldsdy  in  a  private  house."  Dexter, 
"The  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,"  I;  184. 


THE    8ANDEMANIAN8    OF    NKW    KN'ci.AND.  L55 

congregation  removed  to  New  Haven,0  where  they,  with  cur- 
lier sympathizers  and  oew  converts,  formed  a  compact  little 
group,  including  several  men  of  position  and  education.  Of 
this  church  two  Yale  graduates  Titus  Smith,  of  the  class 
of  17C.4,  and  Thcophilus  Chamberlain,6  of  L765  were  "eld- 
ers;" and  within  the  next  five  years  its  membership  included 
three  other  sons  of  Vale— Daniel  Humphreys c  and  Joseph 
Pyncheon,d  of  the  class  of  1 757.  and  Richard  Woodhull,  of 
17.V_\ 

In  1774  the  Danbury  Sandemanian  Church  received  a  great 
increase  of  strength  by  the  formal  adhesion  to  full  Sandeman- 
ianismof  Rev.  Ebenezer  Russell  White,  Vale.  L760'/who,  since 
1768,  had  been  colleague  pastor  with  his  father,  lie  v.  Ebenezer 

nj.  W.  Barber,  "Conn.  Historical  Collections,"  369.  Stiles's  manuscript  records,  under 
date  of  September  13,  1772:  "There  are  about  a  Dozen  Sandemanian  Families  settled 
here  last  Spring,"  and  adds,  a  little  later:  "  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Elder  of  the  Sandemanian 
Chh  in  New  Haven  |  Mr.  Smith  is  another  Elder),  told  me  they  had  but  Twelve  Brethren 
(Elders  included)  and  one  Sister." 

bThrough  the  kindness  of  Prof.  F.  B.  Dexter,  of  Yale.  I  am  able  to  give  the  following 
facts:  Titus  Smith,  1734-1807,  was  highly  esteemed  at  college,  and  after  graduation  went 
to  Wheeloek'a  school  at  Lebanon  to  fit  himself  for  missionary  labor  among  the  Indians. 
Tn  this  study  and  preparation  Theophilus  Chamberlain,  1737-1824,  accompanied  him. 
They  were  ordained  together  on  April  24,  1765,  before  Chamberlain's  graduation,  and  in 
the  summer  of  1765  went  to  the  Six  Nations  in  central  New  York.  Smith  returned  to 
New  England  that  year.  Between  1768  and  1771  he  settled  at  Danbury.  and  about  this 
time  became  a  Sandemanian.  At  the  loyalist  exodus,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution, 
he  went  to  Halifax,  where,  or  at  Preston,  close  by,  he  resided  till  his  death.  Chamber- 
lain had  a  picturesque  career.  Sprung  from  very  humble  circumstances,  he  served  in 
the  old  French  war,  was  imprisoned  at  Montreal  and  Quebec,  and  on  his  return  settled 
down  till  his  ambition  was  suddenly  aroused  to  obtain  an  education.  After  ordination. 
as  already  described,  he  served  as  a  missionary  till  July,  1767,  when  he  resigned,  having 
been  converted  to  Sandemanianism  by  reading  one  of  Sandeman's  books.  In  1768  he 
opened  a  school  in  Boston,  but  in  February,  1769,  he  removed  to  Danbury  and  enjoyed 
the  warm  friendshipof  Sandeman.  He  removed  to  Halifax  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution, 
where  he  became  a  magistrate  and  a  man  of  position,  and  resided  till  his  death  at 
Preston. 

•  c Daniel  Humphreys  was  born  at  Derby,  Conn.,  May  18,  1740.  After  graduating,  he 
studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  New  Haven  bar.  In  April,  1769,  he  owned  himself 
a  Sandemanian  at  much  personal  cost.  In  1774  he  went  to  Portsmouth,  but  in  Novem- 
ber, 1776,  he  opened  a  school  in  New  Haven.  He  had  trouble  on  account  of  his  Tory 
principles,  but  after  the  Revolution  settled  at  Portsmouth,  where  he  won  distinction  at 
the  bar,  and  from  1804  to  his  death  was  United  States  district  attorney  for  New  Hamp- 
shire. He  was  a  faithful  Sandemanian  and  an  excellent  man.  More  will  be  said  of  him 
later  in  this  paper.  He  died  September  30, 1827.  See  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  of  the  Grad- 
uates of  Yale,  II;  471-474. 

dJosepb  Pyncheon  was  born  October  30,  1737.  Lived  at  Guilford  after  graduation  and 
represented  the  town  in  the  legislature  in  1766-1769.  Became  a  Sandemanian  in  1771. 
Tory  in  the  Revolution.  Had  to  seek  British  protection,  and  went  to  Nova  Scotia  in  1781, 
but  returned  to  Guilford  in  1785,  and  died  there  November  23,  1794.  See  Dexter,  Ibid. 
II;  488,  489. 

eSee  ante,  note. 

/Ebenezer  Russell  White  was  born  at  Danbury,  December  22,  1743.  From  1762  to  his 
dismissal  for  Sandemanian  views,  in  1765,  he  was  a  tutor  at  Y'ale.  In  July,  1774,  he  be- 
came fully  a  Sandemanian.  was  a  respected  citizen  of  Danbury,  held  the  office  of  post 


156  AMERICAN   HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

White,  over  the  "New  Danbury  Church,"  which  has  already 
been  described  as  Sandemanian  in  its  view  of  faith,  but  not  in 
its  practices.  With  White  a  considerable  number  of  the  church 
of  his  recent  pastorate  joined  the  Sandemanian  body,a  and 
sympathizers  now,  or  soon  after,  organized  churches  in  the 
adjacent  towns  of  Bethel  and  Newtown.6 

But  the  Revolutionary  war  proved  a  period  of  great  dis- 
tress for  the  Sandemanians.  Convinced  for  the  most  part, 
like  Sandeman  himself,  that  obedience  to  the  King  was  a 
Christian  dut\T,  the  struggle  entailed  on  many  of  them  much 
sacrifice/  and  on  the  body  as  a  whole  much  popular  condem- 
nation. The  seeds  planted  in  a  number  of  fields,  it  is  prob- 
able, were  destroyed.  Yet  the  dispersion  caused  by  that 
struggle  gave  birth  to  two  Sandemanian  churches  at  least. 

master  for  several  years  ending,  in  1808,  and  died  May  4,  1825.  See  Dexter,  Biographical 
Sketches,  II,  679,  680. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Miss  Maria  White  Averill,  of  Danbury,  his  great  grandaughter, 
I  have  been  permitted  to  use  a  manuscript  account  of  his  relations  to  the  Danbury 
Sandemanian  Church,  written  in  1814,  1818,  and  1824.  Reference  will  be  made  later  in 
this  paper. 

a  Writing  in  1818,  White  says:  "Some  time  in  1768  or  1769  I  was  induced  to  become  a 
fellow-clergyman  with  my  Father  and  was  ordained  as  a  Collegue  with  him  over  the 
New  Danbury  Church  and  Society.  In  this  situation  I  continued  until  July  1774,  when  I 
was  compelled  to  come  out  from  among  them  and  be  separate,  with  a  dozen  or  two  more, 
as  we  could  not  consider  our  former  associates  as  walking  in  the  '  Obedience  of  Faith.'  " 

b  White,  ibid.,  speaks  of  "  ye  neighboring  Churches  at  Newtown  and  Bethel." 

c  The  following  curious  act  of  the  Connecticut  legislature,  passed  in  October,  1777,  for 
some  reason  was  not  entered  in  the  regular  journal.  It  may  be  found  in  "The  Public 
Records  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  from  May,  1778,  to  April,  1780,"  Preface,  Hartford,  1895 

"Whereas  it  appears  to  this  Assembly  that  Daniel  Humphrys,  Titus  Smith,  Richard 
Woodhull,  Joseph  Pyncheon,  Theophilus  Chamberlain,  Benjamin  Smith,  and  William 
Richmond,  disciples  of  the  late  Robert  Sandeman,  residing  in  New  Haven,  have  imbibed 
the  opinion  that  they  owe  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  and  that  they  are 
bound  in  conscience  to  yield  obedience  to  his  authority,  and  have  signified  their  desire 
if  they  may  not  continue  at  New  Haven  to  remove  to  some  place  under  the  dominion  of 
said  King. 

"Resolved  by  this  Assembly,  That  the  said  persons  and  each  of  them,  may  be  at  liberty 
to  continue  in  this  State  upon  giving  their  parole  of  honor  that  they  will  not  do  anything 
injurious  to  this  State  or  to  the  United  States  of  America,  or  give  any  intelligence,  aid  or 
assistance  to  the  British  officers  or  forces  at  war  with  this  or  the  other  United  States,  or 
if  they  decline  giving  such  parole,  they  with  their  families,  household  goods,  apparel, 
and  provisions  sufficient  for  their  passage,  may  remove  to  any  place  subject  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  or  to  New  York,  now  occupied  by  the  said  King's 
troops.  Except  the  daughter  of  the  said  Richard  Woodhul  who  is  heiress  to  a  consider- 
able real  estate  in  said  New  Haven  descended  to  her  from  her  mother  deceased,  who 
shall  not  be  removed  therefrom,  but  she  and  her  estate  shall  be  under  the  care  and 
guardianship  of  William  Greenough,  Esq.,  of  said  New  Haven,  during  her  minority." 

Several  at  least  of  those  mentioned  declined  to  give  their  parole,  and  Stiles  records, 
under  date  of  November  10, 1777,  in  his  Literary  Diary,  II,  228:  "I  saw  some  of  the 
Sandemanian  Brethren  who  were  lately  imprisoned  in  N.  Haven  for  their  Declara  in 
Favor  of  the  King  &  agt  America.    They  are  embarkg  for  L.  Isld.     [Long  Island] ." 

For  a  list  of  Sandemanian  Tories  at  Boston,  see  Mr.  Edes's  paper  already  cited,  p.  120. 


THE  SANDKMANIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     157 

One  of  these  had  a  brief  bistory  ;it  York.  Ale."  A  more  per- 
manent body  was  that  established  by  Sandemanian  loyalists 
on  their  exodus  t<>  Nova  Scotia,  known  from  its  headquarters 
at  that  of  Halifax/'  During  the  Revolution  Sandemanian 
missionary  activity  established  a  church  at  Taunton.  Mass.,1 
but  for  the  Sandemanian  communion  generally  that  contest 
was  a  sadly  wasting  experience.'7 

No  further  organization  of  Sandemanian  congregations  is 
known  to  the  writer,  save  that  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
church  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  in  1S44,  which  was  not  apparently 
in  existence  in  L824.'  The  churches  in  active  life  in  1798 
were  those  of  Danburv,  Portsmouth,  Boston,  Taunton,  and 
Halifax/  and  all  of  these,  with  the  possible  exception  of  that  of 

a  A  letter  ol  Edward  Foster,  once  of  Boston,  to  Robert  Ferrier,  dated  Halifax.  May  l. 
1782,  which  may  he  found  in  Letters  in  Correspondence,  130-134,  speaks  of  the  time 
■•  when  Colburn  Barrell  and  others  at  York  dissolved  the  church  order  there"  as  recent. 
This  church  was  formed,  I  suppose,  after  XTathaniel  Barrell  retired  to  York,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution.  Sandemanianism  must  have  been  represented  at  York,  how- 
ever, till  Nathaniel  Barrell's  death,  in  1831. 

&  Foster's  letter,  above  cited,  shows  that  though  the  Sandemanians  in  Halifax  were 
holding  meetings  in  May,  1782,  and  their  number  included  "  four  men  and  three  women 
who  *  *  *  were  of  the  church  in  Boston,"  they  were  not  then  fully  organized  into  a 
church;  but  White's  manuscript,  mentioned  above  shows  that  they  were  a  "church" 
by  1784. 

c  Foster's  letter,  above  cited,  makes  mention  of  the  spread  of  Sandemanianism  at  Taun- 
ton in  the  winter  of  1781-82,  though  it  seems  probable  that  the  Taunton  church  was  not 
fully  organized  till  Daniel  Brewer,  an  elder  of  the  church  at  Newtown,  removed  to  Taun- 
ton in  1785.  See  S.  H.  Emery.  The  Ministry  of  Taunton,  I,  241;  II,  121.  In  1788  the  Taun- 
ton Sandemanians  numbered  27.  A  letter  from  Rev.  William  D.  Fox,  of  Taunton,  to 
Rev.  Edward  G.  Porter,  dated  June  4,  1S92,  states  that  "the  members  comprised  some 
of  the  prominent  business  men  of  the  town." 

''The  church  at  New  Haven  was  practically  destroyed  by  the  Revolution,  though  San- 
demanian believers  continued  in  the  city  certainly  till  the  death  of  Richard  Woodhull  in 
1797.  Foster,  in  the  letter  of  May  1,  1782,  above  cited,  speaks  of  him  as  "a  brother  of 
deservedly  high  estimation."  Though  that  letter  shows  the  Providence  church  alive  in 
1782,  and  including  "  three  *  *  *  who  were  of  the  church  in  Boston,"  I  am  unable  to 
discover  thai  it  survived  the  Revolution  long.  Two,  at  least,  of  its  members  removed  to 
Taunton.  Foster's  letter  gives  some  glimpses  of  the  state  of  New  England  Sandemanian- 
ism in  the  spring  of  1782.  "Danburv  is  a  town  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut.  *  *  * 
The  church  there  has  two  elders,  Ebenezer  Russell  White  and  Mr.  Jackson.  In  Septem- 
ber last  it  consisted  of  ten  men  and  four  women,  and  several  have  since  joined  them. 

*  *  *  Newton  *  *  *  consisted  of  eleven  men  and  five  women,  and  several  have 
since  joined  them.     *    *    *    Portsmouth   [has]  now  only  six  persons  of  our  profession. 

*  *  *  Boston  [where]  I  have  seen  twenty-six  church  members  coming  together  in  one 
place  [now  has]  three  persons  remaining  in  that  town  who  were  of  the  church  there." 
His  references  to  Providence  and  Taunton  have  already  been  cited. 

el  infertile  existence  of  this  church  from  a  letter  by  Theodore  Barrell  to  Abigail  Barrell, 
dated  August  29,  1844,  formerly  owned  by  Rev.  Edward  G.  Porter,  and  kindly  loaned  to 
me  by  his  sister.  White's  manuscript  of  1824,  in  speaking  of  the  Sandemanians  that  he 
then  knew,  says  nothing  of  a  congregation  at  Newark.  Three  Sandemanian  believers  at 
least  are  now  living  in  New  Jersey. 

/Gathered  from  White's  manuscript. 


158  AMEEICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

Portsmouth,  were  still  alive  in  1824.a  But  the  church  at  Dan- 
bury  was  soon  after  their  only  survivor.  That  at  Taunton  is 
thought  to  have  continued  till  "about  1835  or  a  little  later."6 
The  Boston  church  is  believed  to  have  ended  with  the  death  of 
Alford  Butler,  in  L828.c  That  of  Portsmouth  hardly  survived 
the  death  of  Daniel  Humphreys,  in  1827,  if  it  was  then  in 
existence.  Of  the  end  of  the  church  at  Halifax  the  writer  is 
ignorant.  By  1830  the  Sandemanian  movement  in  America 
had  spent  whatever  feeble  force  it  had  ever  possessed. 

Perhaps  the  best  explanation  of  the  almost  complete  col- 
lapse of  a  movement  which,  in  spite  of  its  crude  theory  of 
faith  and  its  extreme  literalism  of  practice,  was  based  on  a 
sincere  and  self-sacrificing  desire  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and 
enlisted  men  of  education  and  character  among  its  adherents, 
may  be  gained  from  a  brief  outline  of  the  experiences  of  the 
Danbury  church,  chiefly  during  the  first  half  century  of  its 
existence.  We  are  permitted  to  follow  its  story  in  the  nar- 
rative of  Ebenezer  Russell  White.  From  the  relatively  great 
accession  in  1771  its  life  for  some  years  was  one  of  peace/7 
But  the  first  considerable  breach  grew  out  of  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  scriptural  injunction,  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  earth."  At  first  it  was  construed  strictly  by 
the  Danbury  church  as  it  had  been  taught  by  Sandeman: 

Whenever  any  of  ye  brethren  proposed  to  lay  by  their  earnings  to 
buy  land  &  increase  their  property  it  was  looked  upon  as  an  evidence  of 
that  covetousness  which  is  Idolatry.  *  *  *  It  was  universally  under- 
stood ec  practised  that  if  by  our  industry  in  business,  we  had  more  than 
was  necessary  for  ye  support  of  ourselves  and  families,  that  Surpluss  must 
be  given  to  y"  Poor. 

But  trouble  came  soon  after  Oliver  Burr  removed  from 
Newtown  to  Danbury'  and  proved  a  prosperous  merchant. 
By  1788  "he  proposed  to  buy  a  Home  Lot  &  build  a  home 
upon  it.  even  although  he  could  at  all  times  be  furnished  with 
a  comfortable  hired  house."     The  church  at  first  deemed  the 

a  White  omits  Portsmouth  in  his  enumeration  of  1824,  but  the  church  there  can  hardly 
have  died  before  the  demise  of  its  vigorous  and  self-sacrificing  leader,  Daniel  Humphreys, 
unless  he  continued,  as  he  certainly  was  at  one  time,  excommunicate  from  its  fellowship 

for  reasons  wholly  creditable  to  him,  that  will  later  be  mentioned.  It  may  be  that  the 
Portsmouth  church  died  for  luck  of  him.  Uuorganized  Sand emanian  believers  were  to 
be  found  in  the  neighborhood  of  Portsmouth  till  within  a  lew  years  of  the  present  lime 

b  Mr.  Fox'-  letter,  already  cited. 

Mr.  Edes's  paper,  already  cited,   p.    119.     In  1817  the  Boston  church  numbered 
only  six. 

d  From  this  point  on  I  follow  White's  manuscript. 

-  Ilr  removed  in  1783. 


THE   SANDEMANIANS    OF    NEW    ENGLAND.  159 

purchase  wrong,  but  gradually  a  majority  was  won  over 
to  Burr's  way  of  thinking,  including  White  himself,  and  the 
house  was  built.  Benjamin  Hoyt,  an  elder  of  the  church,  and 
Joshua  Benedict,  one  of  its  deacons,  remonstrated  "against 
this  conduct  as  forbidden  by  the  holy  Scriptures;"  and.  as 
church  action  and  belief  according  to  Sandemanian  principles 
must  be  unanimous,  they  were  excommunicated. 

This  was  a  pretty  radical  departure  from  Sandeman's  teach- 
ing, and  "several  of  the  brethren  in  Boston  &  Taunton"  pro- 
tested against  the  action  of  the  Danbury  majority.  A  council 
was  called  of  "representatives  from  all  ye  Churches,"  which 
gathered  at  Taunton  in  February,  1789,  and  included  dele- 
gates from  Danbury,  Newtown,  Taunton,  Boston,  and  Ports- 
mouth. The  Danbury  view  was  approved  after  protracted 
discussion,  and  under  this  new  interpretation  Daniel  "Hum- 
phreys of  Portsmouth  bought  a  large  house  there,  &  furnished 
one  spacious  room  in  it  with  new  &  costly  furniture.''  But 
nearly  four  years  later  the  suicide  of  Isaac  Winslow."  a  prom- 
inent member  of  the  Boston  church,  madeadeep  impression  on 
the  small  Sandemanian  body.  To  many  at  Boston  and  Ports- 
mouth it  seemed  a  divine  call  to  repentance.  Daniel  Hum- 
phreys "sold  his  house  &  costly  furniture  *  *  *  discharged 
his  debts  &  distributed  to  ye  poor."  But  some  of  his  fellow- 
members  at  Portsmouth  not  only  opposed  his  action,  but  rep- 
resented him  to  the  Danbury  church  as  insane.  In  March, 
1793,  delegates  of  the  churches  at  Danbury  and  Boston,  with  a 
Sandemanian  brother  resident  at  New  Haven/'  met  with  the 
Portsmouth  church  and  Humphreys  was  excommunicated. 
The  Danbury  church  had  grown  to  a  membership  of  "  60  or 
70,"  but  it  was  much  divided  in  spirit;  among  other  points 
on  the  question,  "Whether  we  must  all  be  of  one  mind 
about  every  article  of  present  sin  &  duty  ?  "  The  neighboring 
churches  of  Bethel  and  Newtown  labored  with  the  Danbury 
church,  and  not  without  results.  Hoyt  and  Benedict  were 
restored  to  membership  and  to  their  former  offices.  Many 
now  returned  to  the  original  view  of  the  sinfulness  of  laying 
up  treasure  on  earth.  Several  repented  of  their  '"covetous- 
ness"  and  labored  with  those  who  had  bought  lands  or  built 
houses  with  their  savings,  but  in  vain.     Mr.  White  and  others 

"  Mr.  Edes,  in  the  paper  already  eited,  p.  130,  says  that  his  death  was  ascribed  to  reli- 
gious melancholia. 
&6turgesBurr. 


160  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

felt  ••therefore  compelled  to  separate  ourselves  from  such  a 
corrupt  society,"  in  March,  1798,  and  to  renew  their  fellow- 
ship with  those  who  had  remained  true  to  strict  opinions  at 
Portsmouth,  Boston,  and  Taunton. 

Their  separation  soon  led  Mr.  White  and  his  friends  to 
further  modifications  of  view.  They  now  looked  upon  their 
former  baptism  as  "  into  anti-Christ,"  though  still  holding, 
like  all  early  Sandemanians,  to  infant  baptism.  They  felt  that 
a  repentant  brother  should  be  restored,  if  necessary,  more 
than  the  single  time  permitted  by  early  Sandemanian  prac- 
tice. And  they  now  considered  "that  an  Elder  or  Deacon 
upon  ye  death  of  their  Wives  may  marry  again.  &  yet  be  ye 
husband  of  one  Wife." 

But  the  question  of  baptism  once  started,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  its  discussion  went  further,  and  Mr.  White  records 
that: 

In  1817  we  were  called  to  a  new  trial  by  the  secession  of  Levi  Osborn  & 
his  wife  &  Mr.  Wildman  «  &  his  wife,  who  then  went  out  from  us  very 
unexpectedly.  They  could  no  longer  walk  with  us  as  brethren,  because 
we  held  to  the  discipleship  &  baptism  of  the  infants  of  a  believing  Parent. 
These,  and  other  persons  who  have  since  joined  with  them,  deny  this,  & 
insist  upon  it  that  the  One  Baptism  belongs  to  those  only  who  are  able  to 
make  the  good  Profession. 

The  separation  led  by  these  four  dissenters  had  a  somewhat 
fruitful  history.  Believing  "that  sects  were  sinful"  and  also 
"that  all  creeds  of  human  formation  should  be  rejected," *  they 
learned  4;that  a  small  band  of  Christians  in  New  York  City 
conformed  to  these  views." c  Osborn  therefore  sought  them 
out  in  1817,  and  was  immersed  by  Henry  Errett  at  New  York. 
On  his  return  to  Danbury,  Osborn  administered  the  rite  of 
baptism  in  the  same  form  to  his  wife  and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Wildman.  Known  as  the  "Osbornites"  for  some  years,  they 
trace  a  continuous  existence  to  the  present,  and  are  reckoned 
one  of  the  earliest  of  the  churches  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ, 
usually   known  as  ••Christians"  or  Campbellites.d     Of   this 

«Uz  Wildman.    The  question  arose  regarding  Wildman's  infant  daughter. 

l>The  Disciples  of  Christ,  by  Rev.  E.  J.  Teagarden,  in  Bailey,  "History  of  Danbury," 
New  York,  1896,  314. 

clbid. 

d  Alexander  Campbell's  indebtedness  to  the  Sandemanians  has  been  often  asserted. 
Undoubtedly  a  good  many  features  of  the  •christian''  churches  are  similar  to  those  of 
the  Sandemanians.  But  there  are  wide  differences — on  baptism,  to  mention  a  single  one. 
Campbell  was  familiar  with  Sandcman's  discussion  of  faith,  and  his  own  definition  ap- 
proached it;  but  he  vigorously  repudiated  any  dependence  upon  Sandeman,  and  he 


THE    s.\N  in:  M\  mans    OF    NK\v    ENGLAND.  L61 

Danbury  church  Osborn  was  the  presiding  officer  till  his  death, 
in  L851.  It  has  steadily  grown  and  has  long  been  a  positive 
force  in  the  Danbury  community. 

Ebenezer  Russell  White  and  \\'\s  associate-,  in  the  separation 
of  March,  L798,  being  thus  abandoned  by  their  companions  in 
thai  separation,  Osborn  and  Wildman,  continued  in  independ- 
ence both  of  theoriginal  Sandemanian  body  from  winch  they 
had  come  out  and  of  the  " Osbornites,"  and  were  known  till 
alter  White's  death,  in  L825,  as  "  White's  Church."  Deprived 
of  bis  leadership,  the  little  congregation,  composed  "mostly 
of  old  ladies,"  "gradually  faded  out,"  and  has  long  since 
ceased  to  exist." 

As  for  the  main  Sandemanian  community  at  Danbury,  it 
survived  these4  successive  shocks  and  schisms,  but  with  steadily 
diminishing  vitality.  Its  members  were  respected  in  the  com- 
munity, hut  it  did  not  grow.  For  a  number  of  years,  till  his 
death  in  IS;")!,  the  leader  was  "  Elder"  Nathaniel  Bishop/' 
Diminishing  numbers  compelled  the  abandonment  of  that  plu- 
rality of  "  elders"  on  which  Sandeman  had  insisted;  but  from 
the  death  of  Mr.  Bishop  to  his  own  decease,  in  1889,  the  elder- 
ship was  held  by  William  B.  Ely.  On  his  demise  the  head- 
ship of  the  fast-waning  Danbury  Hock  fell  to  his  daughter, 
Miss  Lucy  Ely,  in  whose  house — the  '* fellowship  house" 
which  had  once  belonged  to  Levi  Osborn,  the  few  members 
met  every  Sunday  morning  till  she.  too.  passed  away  on  Decem- 
ber 3,  L899.  With  the  flight  of  time  certain  of  the  earlier 
customs  were  abandoned.  The  kiss  of  charity  was  omitted 
some  years  ago.  But  till  Miss  Ely's  death  the  members  met 
regularly  to  read  the  Scriptures,  though  more  formal  services 
were  discontinued  about  1890/  The  church  building,  for 
which  the  meager  congregation  had  no  further  use,  was  sold 
and  converted  into  a  stable  in  the  year  last  mentioned:'7  and 

seems  to  have  taught  that  heart-fell  trust  is  an  important  element  in  true  faith  toa  degree 
which  Sandeman  would  not  have  approved.  On  these  matters  see  Richardson,  ••.Mem- 
oirs of  Alexander  Campbell,"  Philadelphia,  1868,  I:  177.  178,  422:  II:  132. 

a  Letter  of  Miss  Maria  White  Averill,  dated  Deeemher  13,  1901. 

b  These  facts  are  gathered  from  Bailey.  "  History  of  Danbury."  and  from  correspondence. 

(•Letters  of  Miss  Maria  White  Averill,  dated  December  3  and  December  13,  1901.  "The 
meetings  proper  were  suspended  about  1890,  though  until  Miss  Ely's  death  those  few  old 
Indies  met  with  her  every  Sunday  morning  in  the  "Fellowship  House"  (her  home  just 
torn  down)  to  read  the  Scriptures  together,  but  they  did  not  call  it  a  regular  meeting,  as 
there  was  no  man  to  expound  to  them." 

4 George  W.  Eallock,  "The  Sandemanians,"  in  "NewEngland  Magazine"  for  April, 
L896,  241. 

H.  Doc.  702,  pt.   L 11 


162  AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION. 

in  the  closing  months  of  1901  the  "fellowship  house/'  where 
the  latest  love  feasts  have  been  held,  was  torn  down.  The 
Danbury  San&emanian  church  seems  but  the  flickering  of  a 
burned-out  candle;  yet  it  is  not  quite  extinguished,  for  it  still 
numbers  three  aged  women,  who  have  been  long  of  its  mem- 
bership, and  within  a  year  past  a  fourth  member,  a  man  well 
advanced  in  years,  has  been  added  to  the  pathetic  group  that 
represents  all  that  remains  on  New  England  soil  of  a  move- 
ment which,  however  narrow,  uncharitable,  and  impracticable, 
attracted  earnest,  educated,  and  devoted  men  a  century  and  a 
third  ago  as  being  a  revival  of  primitive  Christianity  and  a 
faithful  illustration  of  obedience  to  Biblical  precepts.  Though 
in  attempting  to  observe  the  letter  it  lost  much  of  the  spirit 
which  alone  gives  life,  one  can  hut  feel  a  measure  of  regret 
that  so  much  self-sacrificing  effort  has  come  to  no  more  wor- 
thy or  enduring  fruitage. 

a  Miss  AverilTs  letter  of  December  :;.  1901. 


ANNUAL   REPORT 


American  Historical  Association 


FOR 


THE   YEAH    1901 


IN    TWO   VOLUMES. 

Volume  I. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE. 
1902. 


CONTENTS 


VOLUME  I. 

Page. 
I.  Report  of  Proceedings  of  Seventeenth   Annual   Meeting  at 
Washington,  D.C.,  December  27-'M,  L901,  by  Charles  II. 

1 1  ask  ins,  corresponding  secretary 17 

II.  An    Undeveloped   Function.     Inaugural   address  by  Presi- 
dent Charles  Francis  Adams 47 

III.  The  Massachusetts  Public  Record  Commission  and  its  Work, 

by  Robert  T.  Swan 95 

IV.  The  Relation  of  the  National  Library  to  Historical  Research 

in  the   United  States,    by   Herbert    Putnam,    Librarian   of 

Congress 113 

V.  The  Sandemanians  of   New    England,   by  Prof.   YVilliston 

Walker 131 

VI.  James  Madison  and  Religious  Liberty,  by  Gaillard  Hunt...       bio 
VII.  The  Chronology  of  the  Erasmus  Letters,  by  Prof.  Ephraim 

Emerton 173 

VIII.  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  by  Prof.  George  L.  Burr 187 

IX.  Herbert  B.  Adams,  by  Prof.  John  M.  Vincent L97 

X.  Maryland's  First  Courts,  by  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner 211 

XL   Southwestern   History  in   the    Southwest,    by    Prof.    George 

P.  Garrison 231 

XII.   Committees  of  Correspondence  of  the  American  Revolution, 

by  Dr.  Edward  D.  Collins 243 

XIII.  Jay's  Treaty  and  the  Slavery  Interests  of  the  United  States, 

by  Frederic  Austin  Ogg 273 

XIV.  The    Legislative  History   of    Naturalization    in    the    United 

States,  L776-1795,  by  Dr.  F.  G.  Franklin 299 

XV.  The  Influence  of  Party  upon  Legislation  in  England  and 
America,  by  Prof.  A.  Lawrence  Lowell  (with  four  dia- 
grams ) 319 

XVI.  London  Company  Records,  by  President  Lyon  G.  Tyler  ...       543 
XVII.  The  Relation  between  the  Virginia  Planter  and  the  London 

Merchant,  by  Prof.  John  s.  Bassett 551 

VOLUME  II. 

Georgia  and  State  Rights,  Prize  Essay  by  Ulrich  Bonnell  Phillips. 
Report  of  the  Public  Archives  Commission. 

15 


